GIFT   OF 
MICHAEL  REE^E 


American 


EDITED   BY 


JOHN  T.  MORSE,  JR. 


3tnimciin  Statesmen 


ALBERT  GALLATIN 


BT 


JOHN  AUSTIN  STEVENS 


BOSTON  AND   NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN    AND   COMPANY 

EtoermUe 


OF  THE 


Copyright,  1883, 
Bl  HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO, 


^1W  rz^Afe  reserved, 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  0.  Houghton  &  Company. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  L 

EARLY  LIFE • 

CHAPTER  IL 

33 
PENNSYLVANIA  LEGISLATURE     .... 

CHAPTER  III. 
UNITED  STATES  SENATE 58 

CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  WHISKEY  INSURRECTION 69 

CHAPTER  V. 
MEMBER  OP  CONGRESS        ....«••    10° 

CHAPTER  VL 
SECRETARY  OP  THE  TREASURY         .       .       •       •       •    176 


CHAPTER  VII. 


IN  THE  CABINET 


289 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


IN  DIPLOMACY 3ia 


120830 


VI  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

PAGE 

CANDIDATE  FOR  THE  VICE-PRESIDENCY  .       .       .       .368 

CHAPTER  X. 

SOCIETY  —  LITERATURE  —  SCIENCE  .       .       .       .        t    374 


ALBERT   GALLATIN. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY  LIFE. 

OF  all  European-born  citizens  who  have  risen  to 
fame  in  the  political  service  of  the  United  States, 
Albert  Gallatin  is  the  most  distinguished.  His 
merit  in  legislation,  administration,  and  diplo 
macy  is  generally  recognized,  and  he  is  venerated 
by  men  of  science  on  both  continents.  Not,  how 
ever,  until  the  recent  publication  of  his  writings 
has  the  extent  of  his  influence  upon  the  political 
life  and  growth  of  the  country  been  to  our  genera 
tion  other  than  a  vague  tradition.  Independence 
and  nationality  were  achieved  by  the  Revolution, 
in  which  he  bore  a  slight  and  unimportant  part ; 
but,  from  the  time  of  the  peace  until  his  death, 
his  influence,  either  by  direct  action  or  indirect 
counsel,  may  be  traced  through  the  history  of  the 
United  States. 

The  son  of  Jean  Gallatin  and  his  wife,  Sophie 
Albertine  Rollaz,  he  was  born  in  the  city  of 
Geneva  on  January  29,  1761,  and  was  baptized 
i 


2  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

by  the  name  of  Abraham  Alfonse  Albert  Galla- 
tin.  The  name  Abraham  he  received  from  his 
grandfather,  but  it  was  early  dropped,  and  he  was 
always  known  by  his  matronyinic  Albert.  The 
Gallatin  family  held  great  influence  in  the  Swiss 
Republic,  and  from  the  organization  of  the  state 
contributed  numerous  members  to  its  magistracy  ; 
others  adopted  the  military  profession,  and  served 
after  the  manner  of  their  country  in  the  Swiss 
contingents  of  foreign  armies.  The  immediate 
relatives  of  Albert  Gallatin  were  concerned  in 
trade.  Abraham,  his  grandfather,  and  Jean,  his 
father^  were  partners.  The  latter  dying  in  1765, 
his  widow  assumed  his  share  in  the  business.  She 
died  in  March,  1770,  leaving  two  children,  —  Al 
bert,  then  nine  years  of  age,  and  an  invalid  daugh 
ter  who  died  a  few  years  later.  The  loss  to  the 
orphan  boy  was  lessened,  if  not  compensated,  by 
the  care  of  a  maiden  lady  —  Mademoiselle  Pictet 
—  who  had  taken  him  into  her  charge  at  his 
father's  death.  This  lady,  whose  affection  never 
failed  him,  was  the  intimate  friend  of  his  mother 
as  well  as  a  distant  relative  of  his  father.  Young 
Gallatin  remained  in  this  kind  care  until  January, 
1773,  when  he  was  sent  to  a  boarding-school,  and 
in  August,  1775,  to  the  academy  of  Geneva,  from 
which  he  was  graduated  in  May,  1779.  The  ex 
penses  of  his  education  were  in  great  part  met  by 
the  trustees  of  the  Bourse  Gallatin,  —  a  sum  left 
in  1699  by  a  member  of  the  family,  of  which  the 


EARLY  LIFE.  3 

income  was  to  be  applied  to  its  necessities.  The 
course  of  study  at  the  academy  was  confined  to 
Latin  and  Greek.  These  were  taught,  to  use  the 
words  of  Mr.  Gallatin,  "  Latin  thoroughly,  Greek 
much  neglected."  Fortunately  his  preliminary 
home  training  had  been  careful,  and  he  left  the. 
academy  the  first  in  his  class  in  mathematics,  natu 
ral  philosophy,  and  Latin  translation.  French,  a 
language  in  general  use  at  Geneva,  was  of  course 
familiar  to  him.  English  he  also  studied.  He  is 
not  credited  with  special  proficiency  in  history, 
but  his  teacher  in  this  branch  was  Muller,  the  dis 
tinguished  historian,  and  the  groundwork  of  hia 
information  was  solid.  No  American  statesman 
has  shown  more  accurate  knowledge  of  the  facta 
of  history,  or  a  more  profound  insight  into  its  phi 
losophy,  than  Mr.  Gallatin. 

Education,  however,  is  not  confined  to  instruc. 
tion,  nor  is  the  influence  of  an  academy  to  b^. 
measured  by  the  extent  of  its  curriculum,  or  the» 
proficiency  of  its  students,  but  rather  by  its  general 
tone,  moral  and  intellectual.  The  Calvinism  of 
Geneva,  narrow  in  its  religious  sense,  was  friendly 
to  the  spread  of  knowledge ;  and  had  this  not  beeix 
the  case,  the  side  influences  of  Roman  Catholicism 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  liberal  spirit  of  the  age 
on  the  other,  would  have  tempered  its  exclusive 
tendency. 

While  the  academy  seems  to  have  sent  out  few 
men  of  extraordinary  eminence,  its  influence  upon 


4  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

society  was  happy.  Geneva  was  the  resort  of  dis 
tinguished  foreigners.  Princes  and  nobles  from 
Germany  and  the  north  of  Europe,  lords  and  gentle 
men  from  England,  and  numerous  Americans  went 
thither  to  finish  their  education.  Of  these  Mr. 
Gallatin  has  left  mention  of  Francis  Kinloch  and 
William  Smith,  who  later  represented  South  Caro 
lina  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States ;  Smith 
was  afterwards  Minister  to  Portugal;  Colonel 
Laurens,  son  of  the  President  of  Congress,  and 
special  envoy  to  France  during  the  war  of  the 
American  Revolution  ;  the  two  Penns,  proprietors 
of  Pennsylvania ;  Franklin  Bache,  grandson  of  Dr. 
Franklin  ;  and  young  Johannot,  grandson  of  Dr. 
Cooper  of  Boston.  Yet  no  one  of  these  followed 
the  academical  course.  To  use  again  the  words 
of  Mr.  Gallatin,  "  It  was  the  Geneva  society  which 
they  cultivated,  aided  by  private  teachers  in  every 
branch,  with  whom  Geneva  was  abundantly  sup 
plied."  "  By  that  influence,"  he  says,  he  was  him 
self  "  surrounded,  and  derived  more  benefit  from 
that  source  than  from  attendance  on  academical 
lectures."  Considered  in  its  higher  sense,  edu 
cation  is  quite  as  much  a  matter  of  association  as 
of  scholarly  acquirement.  The  influence  of  the 
companion  is  as  strong  and  enduring  as  that  of 
the  master.  Of  this  truth  the  career  of  young 
Gailatin  is  a  notable  example.  During  his  aca 
demic  course  he  formed  ties  of  intimate  friendship 
irith  three  of  his  associates.  These  were  Henri 


EARLY  LIFE.  5 

Serre,  Jean  Badollet,  and  Etienne  Dumont.  This 
attachment  was  maintained  unimpaired  through 
out  their  lives,  notwithstanding  the  widely  dif 
ferent  stations  which  they  subsequently  filled. 
Serre  and  Badollet  are  only  remembered  from, 
their  connection  with  Gallatin.  Dumont  was 
of  different  mould.  He  was  the  friend  of  Mira- 
beau,  the  disciple  and  translator  of  Bentham, — 
a  man  of  elegant  acquirement,  but,  in  the  judg 
ment  of  Gallatin,  "  without  original  genius."  De 
Lolme  was  in  the  class  above  Gallatin.  He  had 
such  facility  in  the  acquisition  of  languages  that 
he  was  able  to  write  his  famous  work  on  the 
English  Constitution  after  the  residence  of  a  sin 
gle  year  in  England.  Pictet,  Gallatin's  relative, 
afterwards  celebrated  as  a  naturalist,  excelled  all 
his  fellows  in  physical  science. 

During  his  last  year  at  the  academy  Gallatin 
was  engaged  in  the  tuition  of  a  nephew  of  Ma 
demoiselle  Pictet,  but  the  time  soon  arrived  when 
he  felt  called  upon  to  choose  a  career.  His  state 
was  one  of  comparative  dependence,  and  the  small 
patrimony  which  he  inherited  would  not  pass  to  his 
control  until  he  should  reach  his  twenty-fifth  year, 
• — the  period  assigned  for  his  majority.  It  would 
be  hardly  just  to  say  that  he  was  ambitious.  Per 
sonal  distinction  was  never  an  active  motor  in  his 
life.  Even  his  later  honors,  thick  and  fast  though 
they  fell,  were  rather  thrust  upon  than  sought  by 
him.  But  his  nature  was  proud  and  sensitive, 


6  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

and  he  chafed  under  personal  control.  The  age 
was  restless.  The  spirit  of  philosophic  inquiry,  no 
longer  confined  within  scholastic  limits,  was  spread 
ing  far  and  wide.  From  the  banks  of  the  Neva  to 
the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  the  people  of 
Europe  were  uneasy  and  expectant.  Men  every 
where  felt  that  the  social  system  was  threatened 
with  a  cataclysm.  What  would  emerge  from  the 
general  deluge  none  could  foresee.  Certainly,  the 
last  remains  of  the  old  feudality  would  be  engulfed 
forever.  Nowhere  was  this  more  thoroughly  be 
lieved  than  at  the  home  of  Rousseau.  Under  the 
shadow  of  the  Alps,  every  breeze  from  which  was 
free,  the  Genevese  philosopher  had  written  his 
"  Contrat  social,"  and  invited  the  rulers  and  the 
ruled  to  a  reorganization  of  their  relations  to 
each  other  and  to  the  world.  But  nowhere, 
also,  was  the  conservative  opposition  to  the  new 
theories  more  intense  than  here.  The  mind  of 
young  Gallatin  was  essentially  philosophic.  The 
studies  in  which  he  excelled  in  early  life  were  in 
this  direction,  and  at  no  time  in  his  career  did  he 
display  any  emotional  enthusiasm  on  subjects  of 
general  concern.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  he  was 
unflinching  in  his  adherence  to  abstract  principle. 
Though  not  carried  away  by  the  extravagance  of 
Rousseau,  he  was  thoroughly  discontented  with 
the  political  state  of  Geneva.  He  was  by  early 
conviction  a  democrat  in  the  broadest  sense  of 
the  term.  Indeed,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find 


EARLY  LIFE.  1 

a  more  perfect  example  of  what  it  was  then  the 
fashion  to  call  a  citoyen  du  monde.  His  family 
seem,  on  the  contrary,  to  have  been  always  con 
servative,  and  attached  to  the  aristocratic  and  oli 
garchic  system  to  which  they  had,  for  centuries, 
owed  their  position  and  advancement. 

Abraham  Gallatin,  his  grandfather,  lived  at 
Pregny  on  the  northern  shore  of  the  lake,  in  close 
neighborhood  to  Ferney,  the  retreat  of  Voltaire. 
Susanne  Vaudenet  Gallatin,  his  grandmother,  was 
a  woman  of  the  world,  a  lady  of  strong  character, 
and  the  period  was  one  when  the  influence  of 
women  was  paramount  in  the  affairs  of  men ; 
among  her  friends  she  counted  Voltaire,  with 
whom  her  husband  and  herself  were  on  intimate 
relations,  and  Frederick,  Landgrave  of  Hesse-Cas- 
sel,  with  whom  she  corresponded.  So  sincere  was 
this  latter  attachment  that  the  sovereign  sent  his 
portrait  to  her  in  1776,  an  honor  which,  at  her  in 
stance,  Voltaire  acknowledged  in  a  verse  charac 
teristic  of  himself  and  of  the  time  :  — 

"  J'ai  baise  ce  portrait  charmant, 
Je  vous  1'avourai  sans  mystere, 
Mes  filles  en  ont  fait  autant, 
Mais  c'est  un  secret  qu'il  faut  taire. 
Vous  trouverez  bon  qu'une  mere 
Vous  parle  un  peu  plus  hardiment, 
Et  vous  verrez  qu'egalement, 
En  tous  les  temps  vous  savez  plaire." 

At  Pregny  young  Gallatin  was  the  constant 
guest  of  his  nearest  relatives  on  his  father's  side, 


8  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

and  he  was  a  frequent  visitor  at  Ferney.  Those 
whose  fortune  it  has  been  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  Mr. 
Gallatin  himself,  in  the  serene  atmosphere  of  his 
study,  after  his  retirement  from  active  participa 
tion  in  public  concerns,  may  well  imagine  the  in 
fluence  which  the  rays  of  the  prismatic  character 
of  Voltaire  must  have  had  upon  the  philosophic 
and  receptive  mind  of  the  young  student. 

There  was  and  still  is  a  solidarity  in  European 
families  which  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  ever 
had  a  counterpart  in  those  of  England,  and  of 
which  hardly  a  vestige  remains  in  American  social 
life.  The  fate  of  each  member  was  a  matter  of 
interest  to  all,  and  the  honor  of  the  name  was 
of  common  concern.  Among  the  Gallatins,  the 
grandmother,  Madame  Gallatin- Vaudenet,  as  she 
was  called,  appears  to  have  been  the  controlling 
spirit.  To  her  the  profession  of  the  youthful 
scion  of  the  stock  was  a  matter  of  family  conse 
quence,  and  she  had  already  marked  out  his  fu 
ture  course.  The  Gallatins,  as  has  been  already 
stated,  had  acquired  honor  in  the  military  service 
of  foreign  princes.  Her  friend,  the  Landgrave  of 
Hesse,  was  engaged  in  supporting  the  uncertain 
fortunes  of  the  British  army  in  America  with  a 
large  military  contingent,  and  she  had  only  to  ask 
to  obtain  for  her  grandson  the  high  commission 
of  lieutenant-colonel  of  one  of  the  regiments  of 
Hessian  mercenaries.  To  the  offer  made  to  young 
Gallatin,  and  urged  with  due  authority,  he  re- 


EARLY  LIFE.  9 

plied,  that  "  he  would  never  serve  a  tyrant ;  "  a 
want  of  respect  which  was  answered  by  a  cuff  on 
the  ear.  This  incident  determined  his  career. 
Whether  it  crystallized  long  cherished  fancies  into 
sudden  action,  or  whether  it  was  of  itself  the  in 
itial  cause  of  his  resolve,  is  now  mere  matter 
of  conjecture ;  probably  the  former.  The  three 
friends,  Gallatin,  Badollet,  and  Serre  seem  to  have 
amused  their  leisure  in  planning  an  ideal  exist 
ence  in  some  wilderness.  America  offered  a  bound 
less  field  for  the  realization  of  such  dreams,  and 
the  spice  of  adventure  could  be  had  for  the  seek 
ing.  Here  was  the  forest  primeval  in  its  original 
grandeur.  Here  the  Indian  roamed  undisputed 
master  ;  not  the  tutored  Huron  of  Voltaire's  tale, 
but  the  savage  of  torch  and  tomahawk.  The 
continent  was  as  yet  unexplored.  In  uncertainty 
as  to  motives  for  man's  action  the  French  magis 
trate  always  searches  for  the  woman,  "  cherchez  la 
femme  ?  "  One  single  allusion  in  a  letter  writ 
ten  to  Badollet,  in  1783,  shows  that  there  was  a 
woman  in  Gallatin's  horoscope.  Who  she  wass 
what  her  relation  to  him,  or  what  influence  she 
had  upon  his  actions,  nowhere  appears.  He  only 
says  that  besides  Mademoiselle  Pictet  there  was 
one  friend,  "  une  amie,"  at  Geneva,  from  whom  a 
permanent  separation  would  be  hard. 

Confiding  his  purpose  to  his  friend  Serre,  Gal- 
latin  easily  persuaded  this  ardent  youth  to  join 
him  in  his  venturesome  journey,  and  on  April  1, 


10  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

1780,  the  two  secretly  left  Geneva.  It  certainly 
was  no  burning  desire  to  aid  the  Americans  in 
their  struggle  for  independence,  such  as  had 
stirred  the  generous  soul  of  Lafayette,  that 
prompted  this  act.  In  later  life  he  repeatedly 
disclaimed  any  such  motive.  It  was  rather  a  long 
ing  for  personal  independence,  for  freedom  from 
the  trammels  of  a  society  in  which  he  had  little 
faith  or  interest.  Nor  were  his  political  opinions 
at  this  time  matured.  He  had  a  just  pride  in  the 
Swiss  Republic  as  a  free  State  (Etat  libre),  and 
his  personal  bias  was  towards  the  "  Negatif " 
party,  as  those  were  called  who  maintained  the 
authority  of  the  Upper  Council  (Petit  Conseil) 
to  reject  the  demands  of  the  people.  To  this 
oligarchic  party  his  family  belonged.  In  a  letter 
written  three  years  later,  he  confesses  that  he  was 
"  Negatif "  when  he  abandoned  his  home,  and 
conveys  the  idea  that  his  emigration  was  an  ex 
periment,  a  search  for  a  system  of  government  in 
accordance  with  his  abstract  notions  of  natural 
justice  and  political  right.  To  use  his  own  words, 
he  came  to  America  to  "  drink  in  a  love  for  inde 
pendence  in  the  freest  country  of  the  universe. 
But  there  was  some  method  in  this  madness.  The 
rash  scheme  of  emigration  had  a  practical  side ; 
land  speculation  and  commerce  were  to  be  the 
foundation  and  support  of  the  settlement  in  the 
wilderness  where  they  would  realize  their  political 
Utopia. 


EARLY   TEARS.  11 

From  Geneva  the  young  adventurers  hurried  to 
Nantes,  on  the  coast  of  France,  where  Gallatin 
soon  received  letters  from  his  family,  who  seem  to 
have  neglected  nothing  that  could  contribute  to 
their  comfort  or  advantage.  Monsieur  P.  M.  Gal- ' 
latin,  the  guardian  of  Albert,  a  distant  relative  in 
an  elder  branch  of  the  family,  addressed  him  a 
letter  which,  in  its  moderation,  dignity,  and  kind 
ness,  is  a  model  of  well-tempered  severity  and 
reproach.  It  expressed  the  pain  Mademoiselle 
Pictet  had  felt  at  his  unceremonious  departure, 
and  his  own  affliction  at  the  ingratitude  of  one  to 
whom  he  had  never  refused  a  request.  Finally, 
as  the  trustee  of  his  estate  till  his  majority,  the 
guardian  assures  the  errant  youth  that  he  will  aid 
him  with  pecuniary  resources  as  far  as  possible, 
without  infringing  upon  the  capital,  and  within  the 
sworn  obligation  of  his  trust.  Letters  of  recom 
mendation  to  distinguished  Americans  were  also 
forwarded,  and  in  these  it  is  found,  to  the  high 
credit  of  the  family,  that  no  distinction  was  made 
between  the  two  young  men,  although  Serre 
seems  to  have  been  considered  as  the  origina-% 
tor  of  the  bold  move.  The  intervention  of  the 
Duke  de  la  Rochefoucauld  d'Enville  was  solicited, 
and  a  letter  was  obtained  by  him  from  Benjamin 
Franklin  —  then  American  Minister  at  the  Court 
of  Versailles  —  to  his  son-in-law,  Richard  Bache. 
Lady  Juliana  Penn  wrote  in  their  behalf  to  John 
Penn  at  Philadelphia,  and  Mademoiselle  Pictet 


12  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

to  Colonel  Kinloch,  member  of  the  Continental 
Congress  from  South  Carolina.  Thus  supported 
in  their  undertaking  the  youthful  travellers  sailed 
from  L' Orient  on  May  27,  in  an  American  ves 
sel,  the  Kattie,  Captain  Loring.  Of  the  sum 
which  Gallatin,  who  supplied  the  capital  for  the 
expedition,  brought  from  Geneva,  one  half  had 
been  expended  in  their  land  journey  and  the 
payment  of  the  passages  to  Boston ;  one  half, 
eighty  louis  d'or  —  the  equivalent  of  four  hun 
dred  silver  dollars  —  remained,  part  of  which  they 
invested  in  tea.  Reaching  the  American  coast  in 
a  fog,  or  bad  weather,  they  were  landed  at  Cape 
Ann  on  July  14.  From  Gloucester  they  rode  the 
next  day  to  Boston  on  horseback,  a  distance  of 
thirty  miles.  Here  they  put  up  at  a  French  cafe*, 
"  The  Sign  of  the  Alliance,"  in  Fore  Street,  kept 
by  one  Tahon,  and  began  to  consider  what  step 
they  should  next  take  in  the  new  world. 

The  prospects  were  not  encouraging ;  the  mili 
tary  fortunes  of  the  ^.struggling  nation  were  never 
at  a  lower  ebb  than  during  the  summer  which 
intervened  between  the  disaster  of  Camden  and 
the  discovery  of  Arnold's  treason.  Washington's 
army  lay  at  New  Windsor  in  enforced  inactivity ; 
enlistments  were  few,  and  the  currency  was  al 
most  worthless.  Such  was  the  stagnation  in  trade, 
that  the  young  strangers  found  it  extremely  diffi 
cult  to  dispose  of  their  little  venture  in  tea.  Two 
months  were  passed  at  the  cafe*,  in  waiting  for  an 


EARLY  LIFE.  13 

opportunity  to  go  to  Philadelphia,  where  Congress 
was  in  session,  and  where  they  expected  to  find  the 
influential  persons  to  whom  they  were  accredited  ; 
also  letters  from  Geneva.  But  this  journey  was  no 
easy  matter.  The  usual  routes  of  travel  were  in 
terrupted.  New  York  was  the  fortified  headquar 
ters  of  the  British  army,  and  the  Middle  States 
were  only  to  be  reached  by  a  devour  through  the 
American  lines  above  the  Highlands  and  behind 
the  Jersey  Hills. 

The  home-sick  youths  found  little  to  amuse  or 
interest  them  in  Boston,  and  grew  very  weary  of 
its  monotonous  life  and  Puritanical  tone.  They 
missed  the  public  amusements  to  which  they  were 
accustomed  in  their  own  country,  and  complained 
of  the  superstitious  observance  of  Sunday,  when 
"  singing,  fiddling,  card-playing  and  bowling  were 
forbidden."  Foreigners  were  not  welcome  guests 
in  this  town  of  prejudice.  The  sailors  of  the 
French  fleet  had  already  been  the  cause  of  one 
riot.  Gallatin's  letters  show  that  this  aversion 
was  fully  reciprocated  by  him. 

The  neighboring  country  had  some  points  of 
interest.  No  Swiss  ever  saw  a  hill  without  an 
intense  desire  to  get  to  its  top.  They  soon  felt 
the  magnetic  attraction  of  the  Blue  Hills  of  Mil 
ton,  and,  descrying  from  their  summit  the  distant 
mountains  north  of  Worcester,  made  a  pedestrian 
excursion  thither  the  following  day.  Mr.  Gallatin 
was  wont  to  relate  with  glee  an  incident  of  this 


14  ALBERT   GALLATIN. 

trip,  which  Mr.  John  Russell  Bartlett  repeats  in 
his  "  Reminiscences." 

"  The  tavern  at  which  he  stopped  on  his  journey  was 
kept  by  a  man  who  partook  in  a  considerable  degree  of 
the  curiosity  even  now-a-days  manifested  by  some  land 
lords  in  the  back  parts  of  New  England  to  know  the 
whole  history  of  their  guests.  Noticing  Mr.  Gallatin's 
French  accent  he  said,  'Just  from  France,  eh!  You 
are  a  Frenchman,  I  suppose.'  '  No ! '  said  Mr.  Gal- 
latin,  'I  am  not  from  France.'  'You  cau't  be  from 
England,  I  am  sure  ? '  '  No ! '  was  the  reply.  '  From 
Spain?'  'No!'  *  From  Germany?'  'No!'  'Well 
where  on  earth  are  you  from  then,  or  what  are  you  ? ' 
eagerly  asked  the  inquisitive  landlord.  '  I  am  a  Swiss,' 
replied  Mr.  Gallatin.  '  Swiss,  Swiss,  Swiss  !  '  exclaimed 
the  landlord,  in  astonishment.  '  Which  of  the  ten  tribes 
are  the  Swiss  ?  ' ' 

Nor  was  this  an  unnatural  remark.  At  this 
time  Mr.  Gallatin  did  not  speak  English  with 
facility,  and  indeed  was  never  free  from  a  foreign 
accent. 

At  the  little  caf6  they  met  a  Swiss  woman,  the 
wife  of  a  Genevan,  one  De  Lesdernier,  who  had 
been  for  thirty  years  established  in  Nova  Scotia, 
but,  becoming  compromised  in  the  attempt  to 
revolutionize  the  colony,  was  compelled  to  fly  to 
New  England,  and  had  settled  at  Machias,  on  the 
northeastern  extremity  of  tbe  Maine  frontier. 
Tempted  by  her  account  of  this  region,  and  per 
haps  making  a  virtue  of  necessity,  Gallatin  and 


EARLY  LIFE.  15 

Serre  bartered  their  tea  for  rum,  sugar,  and  to 
bacco,  and,  investing  the  remainder  of  their  petty 
capital  in  similar  merchandise,  they  embarked 
October  1,  1780,  upon  a  small  coasting  vessel, 
which,  after  a  long  and  somewhat  perilous  pas 
sage,  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Machias  River  on 
the  15th  of  the  same  month.  Machias  was  then  a 
little  settlement  five  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the 
stream  of  the  same  name.  It  consisted  of  about 
twenty  houses  and  a  small  fortification,  mounting 
seven  guns  and  garrisoned  by  fifteen  or  twenty 
men.  The  young  travellers  were  warmly  received 
by  the  son  of  Lesdernier,  and  made  their  home 
under  his  roof.  This  seems  to  have  been  one 
of  the  four  or  five  log-houses  in  a  large  clear 
ing  near  the  fort.  Gallatin  attempted  to  settle  a 
lot  of  land,  and  the  meadow  where  he  cut  the  hay 
with  his  own  hands  is  still  pointed  out.  This  is 
Frost's  meadow  in  Perry,  not  far  from  the  site  of 
the  Indian  village.  A  single  cow  was  the  begin 
ning  of  a  farm,  but  the  main  occupation  of  the 
young  men  was  wood-cutting.  No  record  remains 
of  the  result  of  the  merchandise  venture.  The 
trade  of  Machias  was  wholly  in  fish,  lumber,  and 
furs,  which,  there  being  no  money,  the  settlers 
were  ready  enough  to  barter  for  West  India  goods. 
But  the  outlet  for  the  product  of  the  country  was, 
in  its  unsettled  condition,  uncertain  and  precari 
ous,  and  the  young  traders  were  no  better  off  than 
before.  One  transaction  only  is  remembered,  the 


16  ALBERT  GALLATIN, 

advance  by  Gallatin  to  the  garrison  of  supplies  to 
the  value  of  four  hundred  dollars  ;  for  this  he  took 
a  draft  on  the  state  treasury  of  Massachusetts, 
which,  there  being  no  funds  for  its  payment,  he 
sold  at  one  fourth  of  its  face  value. 

The  life,  rude  as  it  was,  was  not  without  its 
charms.  Serre  seems  to  have  abandoned  himself 
to  its  fascination  without  a  regret.  His  descrip 
tive  letters  to  Badollet  read  like  the  Idylls  of  a 
Faun.  Those  of  Gallatin,  though  more  tempered 
in  tone,  reveal  quiet  content  with  the  simple  life 
and  a  thorough  enjoyment  of  nature  in  its  original 
wildness.  In  the  summer  they  followed  the  tracks 
of  the  moose  and  deer  through  the  primitive  for 
ests,  and  explored  the  streams  and  lakes  in  the 
light  birch  canoe,  with  a  woodsman  or  savage  for 
their  guide.  In  the  winter  they  made  long  jour 
neys  over  land  and  water  on  snow-shoes  or  on 
skates,  occasionally  visiting  the  villages  of  the 
Indians,  with  whom  the  Lesderniers  were  on  the 
best  of  terms,  studying  their  habits  and  witness 
ing  their  feasts.  Occasional  expeditions  of  a  dif 
ferent  nature  gave  zest  and  excitement  to  this 
rustic  life.  These  occurred  when  alarms  of  Eng 
lish  invasion  reached  the  settlement,  and  volun 
teers  marched  to  the  defence  of  the  frontier. 
Twice  Gallatin  accompanied  such  parties  to  Pas- 
samaquoddy,  and  once,  in  November,  1780,  was  left 
for  a  time  in  command  of  a  small  earth-work  and 
a  temporary  garrison  of  whites  and  Indians  at 


EARLY  LIFE.  17 

that  place.  At  Machias  Gallatin  made  one  ac 
quaintance  which  greatly  interested  him,  that  of 
La  Pe*rouse,  the  famous  navigator.  He  was  then 
in  command  of  the  Amazone  frigate,  one  of  the 
French  squadron  on  the  American  coast,  and  had 
in  convoy  a  fleet  of  fishing  vessels  on  their  way  to 
the  Newfoundland  banks.  Gallatin  had  an  in 
tense  fondness  for  geography,  and  was  delighted 
with  La  Perouse's  narrative  of  his  visit  to  Hud 
son's  Bay,  and  of  his  discovery  there  (at  Fort 
Albany,  which  he  captured)  of  the  manuscript 
journal  of  Samuel  Hearne,  who  some  years  before 
had  made  a  voyage  to  the  Arctic  regions  in  search 
of  a  northwest  passage.  Gallatin  and  La  Perouse 
met  subsequently  in  Boston. 

The  winter  of  1780-81  was  passed  in  the  cabin 
of  the  Lesderniers.  The  excessive  cold  does  not 
seem  to  have  chilled  Serre's  enthusiasm.  Like  the 
faun  of  Hawthorne's  mythical  tale,  he  loved  Na 
ture  in  all  her  moods,  but  Gallatin  appears  to  have 
wearied  of  the  confinement  and  of  his  uncongenial 
companions.  The  trading  experiment  was  aban 
doned  in  the  fall,  and  with  some  experience,  but  a 
reduced  purse,  the  friends  returned  in  October  to 
Boston,  where  Gallatin  set  to  work  to  support  him 
self  by  giving  lessons  in  the  French  language. 
What  success  he  met  with  at  first  is  not  known, 
though  the  visits  of  the  French  fleet  and  the  pres 
ence  of  its  officers  may  have  awakened  some  inter 
est  in  their  language.  However  this  may  be,  in 


18  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

December  Gallatin  wrote  to  his  good  friend, 
Mademoiselle  Pictet,  a  frank  account  of  bis  em 
barrassments.  Before  it  reached  her,  she  had  al 
ready,  with  her  wonted  forethought,  anticipated 
his  difficulties  by  providing  for  a  payment  of 
money  to  him  wherever  he  might  be,  and  had  also 
secured  for  him  the  interest  of  Dr.  Samuel  Cooper, 
whose  grandson,  young  Johannot,  was  then  at 
school  in  Geneva.  Dr.  Cooper  was  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  of  the  patriots  in  Boston,  and 
no  better  influence  could  have  been  invoked  than 
his.  In  July,  1782,  by  a  formal  vote  of  the  Presi 
dent  and  Fellows  of  Harvard  College,  Mr.  Gal 
latin  was  permitted  to  teach  the  French  language. 
About  seventy  of  the  students  availed  themselves 
of  the  privilege.  Mr.  Gallatin  received  about 
three  hundred  dollars  in  compensation.  In  this 
occupation  he  remained  at  Cambridge  for  about  a 
year,  at  the  expiration  of  which  he  took  advantage 
of  the  close  of  the  academic  course  to  withdraw 
from  his  charge,  receiving  at  his  departure  a  cer 
tificate  from  the  Faculty  that  he  had  acquitted 
himself  in  his  department  with  great  reputation. 

The  war  was  over,  the  army  of  the  United 
States  was  disbanded,  and  the  country  was  pre 
paring  for  the  new  order  which  the  peace  would 
introduce  into  the  habits  and  occupations  of  the 
people.  The  long-sought  opportunity  at  last  pre 
sented  itself,  and  Mr.  Gallatin  at  once  embraced 
it.  He  left  Boston  without  regret.  He  had  done 


EARLY  LIFE.  19 

his  duty  faithfully,  and  secured  the  approbation 
and  esteem  of  all  with  whom  he  had  come  in  con 
tact,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  cared  for  or 
sought  social  relations  either  in  the  city  or  at  the 
college.     Journeying  southward  he  passed  through 
Providence,  where  he    took  sail  for  New  York. 
Stopping  for  an  hour  at  Newport  for  dinner,  he 
reached  New  York  on  July  21.     The  same  day 
the  frigate  Mercury  arrived  from  England  with 
news  of  the  signature  of  the  definitive  treaty  of 
peace.     He  was  delighted  with  the  beauty  of  the 
country-seats  above  the  city,  the  vast  port  with 
its  abundant  shipping,  and  with  the  prospect  of 
a  theatrical  entertainment.     The  British  soldiers 
and  sailors,  who  were  still  in  possession,  he  found 
rude  and  insolent,  but  the  returning  refugees  civil 
and  honest  people.     At  Boston  Gallatin  made  the 
acquaintance  of  a  French  gentleman,  one  Savary 
de  Valcoulon,  who   had  crossed  the   Atlantic  to 
prosecute    in   person   certain    claims   against   the 
State  of  Virginia  for  advances  made  by  his  house 
in  Lyons  during  the  war.     He  accompanied  Gal 
latin  to  New  York,  and  together  they  travelled 
to  Philadelphia  ;  Savary,  who  spoke  no  English, 
gladly  attaching  to  himself    as  his  companion    a 
young  man  of  the  ability  and  character  of  Gal 
latin.      At  Philadelphia  Gallatin  was  soon  after 
joined  by  Serre,   who  had   remained  behind,  en 
gaged  also  in  giving  instruction.      The  meeting 
at  Philadelphia  seems  to  have  been  the  occasion 


20  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

for  the  dissolution  of  a  partnership  in  which  Gal- 
latin  had  placed  his  money,  and  Serre  his  enthu 
siasm  and  personal  charm.  A  settlement  was 
made  ;  Serre  giving  his  note  to  Gallatin  for  the 
sum  of  six  hundred  dollars, — one  half  of  their 
joint  expenses  for  three  years,  —  an  obligation 
which  was  repaid  more  than  half  a  century  later 
by  his  sister.  Serre  then  joined  a  fellow-country 
man  and  went  to  Jamaica,  where  he  died  in  1784. 
At  Philadelphia  Gallatin  and  Savary  lodged  in  a 
house  kept  by  one  Mary  Lynn.  Pelatiah  Web 
ster,  the  political  economist,  who  owned  the  house, 
was  also  a  boarder.  Later  he  said  of  his  fellow- 
lodgers  that  "  they  were  well-bred  gentlemen  who 
passed  their  time  conversing  in  French."  Gal 
latin,  at  the  end  of  his  resources,  gladly  acceded 
to  Savary 's  request  to  accompany  him  to  Rich 
mond. 

Whatever  hesitation  Gallatin  may  have  enter 
tained  as  to  his  definitive  expatriation  was  entirely 
set  at  rest  by  the  news  of  strife  between  the  rival 
factions  in  Geneva  and  the  interposition  of  armed 
force  by  the  neighboring  governments.  This  inter 
ference  turned  the  scale  against  the  liberal  party. 
Mademoiselle  Pictet  was  the  only  link  which  bound 
him  to  his  family.  For  his  ingratitude  to  her  he 
constantly  reproached  himself.  He  still  styled  him 
self  a  citizen  of  Geneva,  but  this  was  only  as  a 
matter  of  convenience  and  security  to  his  corre. 
spondence.  His  determination  to  make  America 


EARLY  LIFE.  21 

his  home  was  now  fixed.  The  lands  on  the  banks 
of  the  Ohio  were  then  considered  the  most  fertile 
in  America,  —  the  best  for  farming  purposes,  the 
cultivation  of  grain,  and  the  raising  of  cattle.  The 
first  settlement  in  this  region  was  made  by  the 
Ohio  Company,  an  association  formed  in  Virginia 
and  London,  about  the  middle  of  the  century,  by 
Thomas  Lee,  together  with  Lawrence  and  Augus 
tine,  brothers  of  George  Washington.  The  lands 
laid  on  the  south  side  of  the  Ohio,  between  the 
Monongahela  and  Kanawha  rivers.  These  lands 
were  known  as  "  Washington's  bottom  lands."  In 
this  neighborhood  Gallatin  determined  to  purchase 
two  or  three  thousand  acres,  and  prepare  for  that 
ideal  country  home  which  had  been  the  dream 
of  his  college  days.  Land  here  was  worth  from 
thirty  cents  to  four  dollars  an  acre.  His  first  pur 
chase  was  about  one  thousand  acres,  for  which  he 
paid  one  hundred  pounds,  Virginia  currency.  Land 
speculation  was  the  fever  of  the  time.  Savary  was 
early  affected  by  it,  and  before  the  new  friends  left 
Philadelphia  for  Richmond  he  bought  warrants  for 
one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  acres  in  Vir 
ginia,  in  Monongalia  County,  between  the  Great 
and  Little  Kanawha  rivers,  and  interested  Gal 
latin  to  the  extent  of  one  quarter  in  the  purchase. 
Soon  after  the  completion  of  this  transaction  the 
sale  of  some  small  portions  reimbursed  them  for 
three  fourths  of  the  original  cost.  This  was  the 
first  time  when,  and  Savary  was  the  first  person  to 


22  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

whom,  Gallatin  was  willing  to  incur  a  pecuniary 
obligation.  It  was  arranged  that  Gallatin 's  part  of 
the  purchase-money  was  not  to  be  paid  until  his 
majority,  — January  29,  1786,  —  but  in  the  mean 
while  he  was,  in  lieu  of  interest  money,  to  give 
his  services  in  personal  superintendence.  Later 
Savary  increased  Gallatin's  interest  to  one  half. 
Soon  after  these  plans  were  completed,  Savary  and 
Gallatin  moved  to  Richmond,  where  they  made 
their  residence.  In  February,  1784,  Gallatin  re 
turned  to  Philadelphia,  perfected  the  arrangements 
for  his  expedition,  and  in  March  crossed  the  moun 
tains,  and,  with  his  exploring  party,  passed  down 
the  Ohio  River  to  Monongalia  County  in  Virginia. 
The  superior  advantages  of  the  country  north  of 
the  Virginia  line  determined  him  to  establish  his 
headquarters  there.  He  selected  the  farm  of 
Thomas  Clare,  at  the  junction  of  the  Monon- 
gahela  River  and  George's  Creek.  This  was  in 
Fayette  County,  Pennsylvania,  about  four  miles 
north  of  the  Virginia  line.  Here  he  built  a  log 
hut,  opened  a  country  store,  and  remained  till  the 
close  of  the  year.  It  was  while  thus  engaged  at 
George's  Creek,  in  September  of  the  year  1784r 
that  Gallatin  first  met  General  Washington,  who 
was  examining  the  country,  in  which  he  had  large 
landed  interests,  to  select  a  route  for  a  road  across 
the  Alleghanies.  The  story  of  the  interview  was 
first  made  public  by  Mr.  John  Russell  Bartlett, 
who  had  it  from  the  lips  of  Mr.  Gallatin.  The 


EARLY  LIFE.  23 

version  of  the  late  Hon.  William  Beach  Lawrence, 
in  a  paper  prepared  for  the  New  York  Histori 
cal  Society,  differs  slightly  in  immaterial  points. 
Mr.  Lawrence  says  :  — 

"  Among  the  incidents  connected  with  his  (Mr.  Gal- 
latin's)  earliest  explorations  was  an  interview  with  Gen 
eral  Washington,  which  he  repeatedly  recounted  to  me. 
He  had  previously  observed  that  of  all  the  inaccessible 
men  he  had  ever  seen,  General  Washington  was  the 
most  so.  And  this  remark  he  made  late  in  life,  after 
having  been  conversant  with  most  of  the  sovereigns  of 
Europe  and  their  prime  ministers.  He  said,  in  connec 
tion  with  his  office,  he  had  a  cot-bed  in  the  office  of  the 
surveyor  of  the  district  when  Washington,  who  had  lands 
in  the  neighborhood,  and  was  desirous  of  effecting  com 
munication  between  the  rivers,  came  there.  Mr.  Gal- 
latin's  bed  was  given  up  to  him,  —  Gallatin  lying  on 
the  floor,  immediately  below  the  table  at  which  Washing 
ton  was  writing.  Washington  was  endeavoring  to  re 
duce  to  paper  the  calculations  of  the  day.  Gallatin, 
hearing  the  statement,  came  at  once  to  the  conclusion, 
and,  after  waiting  some  time,  he  himself  gave  the  answer, 
which  drew  from  Washington  such  a  look  as  he  never 
experienced  before  or  since.  On  arriving  by  a  slow 
process  at  his  conclusion,  Washington  turned  to  Gal 
latin  and  said,  '  You  are  right,  young  man.'  " 

The  points  of  difference  between  the  two  ac 
counts  of  this  interview  are  of  little  importance. 
The  look  which  Washington  is  said  to  have  given 
Mr.  Gallatin  has  its  counterpart  in  that  with  which 
he  is  also  said  to  have  turned  upon  Gouverneur 


24  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

Morris,  when  accosted  by  him  familiarly  with  a 
touch  on  the  shoulder.  Bartlett,  in  his  recollec 
tion  of  the  anecdote,  adds  that  Washington,  about 
this  period,  inquired  after  the  forward  young  man, 
and  urged  him  to  become  his  land  agent,  —  an  of 
fer  which  Gallatin  declined. 

The  winter  of  1784—85  was  passed  in  Rich 
mond,  in  the  society  of  which  town  Mr.  Gallatirk 
began  to  find  a  relief  and  pleasure  he  had  not  yet 
experienced  in  America.  At  this  period  the  Vir 
ginia  capital  was  the  gayest  city  in  the  Union,  and 
famous  for  its  abundant  hospitality,  rather  facile 
manners,  and  the  liberal  tendency  of  its  religious 
thought.  Gallatin  brought  no  prudishness  and 
no  orthodoxy  in  his  Genevese  baggage.  One  of 
the  last  acts  of  his  life  was  to  recognize  in  grace 
ful  and  touching  words  the  kindness  he  then  met 
with  :  —  v 

"  I  was  received  with  that  old  proverbial  Virginia  hos 
pitality  to  which  I  know  no  parallel  anywhere  within 
the  circle  of  my  travels.  It  was  not  hospitality  only 
that  was  shown  to  me.  I  do  not  know  how  it  came  to 
pass,  but  every  one  with  whom  I  became  acquainted 
appeared  to  take  an  interest  in  the  young  stranger.  I 
was  only  the  interpreter  of  a  gentleman,  the  agent  of 
a  foreign  house,  that  had  a  large  claim  for  advances  to 
the  State,  and  this  made  me  known  to  all  the  officers  of 
government,  and  some  of  the  most  prominent  members 
of  the  Legislature.  It  gave  me  the  first  opportunity  of 
showing  some  symptoms  of  talent,  even  as  a  speaker, 


EARLY  LIFE.  25 

of  which  I  was  not  myself  aware.  Every  one  encour 
aged  me,  and  was  disposed  to  promote  my  success  in  life* 
To  name  all  those  from  whom  I  received  offers  of  ser 
vice  would  be  to  name  all  the  most  distinguished  resi 
dents  at  that  time  in  Richmond." 

In  the  spring  of  1785,  fortified  with  a  certificate 
from.  Governor  Patrick  Henry,  commending  him 
to  the  county  surveyor,  and  intrusted  by  Henry 
with  the  duty  of  locating  two  thousand  acres  of 
lands  in  the  western  country  for  a  third  party,  he 
set  out  from  Richmond,  on  March  31,  alone,  on 
horseback.  Following  the  course  of  the  James 
River  he  crossed  the  Blue  Ridge  at  the  Peaks  of 
Otter,  and  reached  Greenbrier  Court  House  on 
April  18.  On  the  29th  he  arrived  at  Clare's,  on 
George's  Creek,  where  he  was  joined  by  Savary. 
Their  surveying  operations  were  soon  begun,  each 
taking  a  separate  course.  An  Indian  rising  broke 
up  the  operations  of  Savary,  and  both  parties  re 
turned  to  Clare's.  Gallatin  appeared  before  the 
court  of  Monongalia  County,  at  its  October  term, 
and  took  the  "  oath  of  allegiance  and  fidelity  to 
the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia."  Clare's,  his  act 
ual  residence,  was  north  of  the  Virginia  line,  but 
his  affections  were  with  the  old  Dominion.  In 
November  the  partners  hired  from  Clare  a  house 
at  George's  Creek,  in  Springfield  township,  and 
established  their  residence,  after  which  they  re 
turned  to  Richmond  by  way  of  Cumberland  and 
the  Potomac.  In  February,  1786,  Gallatin  made 
his  permanent  abode  at  his  new  home. 


26  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

Mention  has  been  made  of  the  intimacy  of  the 
young  emigrants  with  Jean  Badollet,  a  college 
companion.  When  they  left  Geneva  he  was  en 
gaged  in  the  study  of  theology,  and  was  now  a 
teacher.  He  was  included  in  the  original  plan  of 
emigration,  and  the  first  letters  of  both  Gallatin 
and  Serre,  who  had  for  him  an  equal  attach 
ment,  were  to  him,  and  year  by  year,  through  all 
the  vicissitudes  of  their  fortune,  they  kept  him 
carefully  informed  of  their  movements  and  proj 
ects.  For  two  years  after  their  departure  no 
word  was  receive^  from  him.  At  last,  spurred 
by  the  sharp  reproaches  of  Serre,  he  broke  silence. 
In  a  letter  written  in  March,  1783,  informing 
Gallatin  of  the  troubles  in  Switzerland,  he  excused 
himself  on  the  plea  that  their  common  friend, 
Dumont,  retained  him  at  Geneva.  In  answer, 
Gallatin  opened  his  plans  of  western  settlement, 
which  included  the  employment  of  his  fortune  in 
the  establishment  of  a  number  of  families  upon 
his  lands.  He  suggested  to  Badollet  to  bring  with 
him  the  little  money  he  had,  to  which  enough 
would  be  added  to  establish  him  independently. 
Dumont  was  invited  to  accompany  him.  But 
with  a  prudence  which  shows  that  his  previous 
experience  had  not  been  thrown  away  upon  him, 
Gallatin  recommends  his  friend  not  to  start  at 
once,  but  to  hold  himself  ready  for  the  next,  or, 
at  the  latest,  the  year  succeeding,  at  the  same 
time  suggesting  the  idea  of  a  general  emigration 


EARLY  LIFE.  27 

of  such  Swiss  malcontents  as  were  small  capi 
talists  and  farmers;  that  of  manufacturers  and 
workmen  he  discouraged.  It  was  not,  however, 
until  the  spring  of  1785,  on  the  eve  of  leaving 
Richmond  with  some  families  which  he  had  en 
gaged  to  establish  on  his  lands,  that  he  felt  justi 
fied  in  asking  his  old  friend  to  cross  the  seas  and 
share  his  lot.  This  invitation  was  accepted,  and 
Badollet  joined  him  at  George's  Creek. 

The  settlement  beginning  to  spread,  Gallatin 
bought  another  farm  higher  up  the  river,  to  which 
he  gave  the  name  of  Friendship  Hill.  Here  he 
later  made  his  home. 

The  western  part  of  Pennsylvania,  embracing 
the  area  which  stretches  from  the  Alleghany 
Mountains  to  Lake  Erie,  is  celebrated  for  the 
wild,  picturesque  beauty  of  its  scenery.  Among 
its  wooded  hills  the  head-waters  of  the  Ohio  have 
their  source.  At  Fort  Duquesne,  or  Pittsburgh, 
where  the  river  takes  a»  sudden  northerly  bend 
before  finally  settling  in  swelling  volume  on  its 
southwesterly  course  to  the  Mississippi,  the  Mo- 
nongahela  adds  its  mountain  current,  which  sepa 
rates  in  its  entire  course  from  the  Virginia  line 
the  two  counties  of  Fayette  and  Washington. 
The  Monongahela  takes  its  rise  in  Monongalia 
County,  Virginia,  and  flows  to  the  northward. 
Friendship  Hill  is  one  of  the  bluffs  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  river,  and  faces  the  Laurel  Ridge  to 
the  eastward.  Braddock's  Road,  now  the  National 


28  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN: 

Road,  crosses  the  mountains,  passing  through 
Uniontown  and  Red  Stone  Old  Fort  (Browns 
ville),  on  its  course  to  Pittsburgh.  The  county 
seat  of  Fayette  is  the  borough  of  Union  or  Union- 
town.  Gallatin's  log-cabin,  the  beginning  of  New 
Geneva,  was  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Mononga- 
hela,  about  twelve  miles  to  the  westward  of  the 
county  seat.  Opposite,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
river,  in  Washington  County,  was  Greensburg, 
where  his  friend  Badollet  was  later  established. 

Again  for  a  long  period  Gallatin  left  his  family 
without  any  word  whatever.  His  most  indul 
gent  friend,  Mademoiselle  Pictet,  could  hardly  ex 
cuse  his  silence,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  charge 
that  it  was  due  to  misfortunes  which  his  pride 
prompted  him  to  conceal.  In  the  early  days  of 
1786  a  rumor  of  his  death  reached  Geneva,  and 
greatly  alarmed  his  family.  Mr.  Jefferson,  then 
Minister  at  Paris,  wrote  to  Mr.  Jay  for  infor 
mation.1  Meanwhile  Gallatin  had  attained  his 
twenty-fifth  year  and  his  majority.  His  family 
were  no  longer  left  in  doubt  as  to  his  existence, 
and  in  response  to  his  letters  drafts  were  at  once 
remitted  to  him  for  the  sum  of  five  thousand  dol 
lars,  through  the  banking-house  of  Robert  Morris. 
This  was,  of  course,  immediately  applied  to  his 
western  experiment.  The  business  of  the  part- 

1  This  was  Jefferson's  first  knowledge  of  the  existence  of  the 
young  man  who  was  to  become  his  political  associate,  his  philo 
sophic  companion,  and  his  truest  friend. 


EARLY  LIFE.  29 

nership  now  called  for  his  constant  attention.  It 
required  the  exercise  of  a  great  variety  of  mental 
powers,  a  cool  and  discriminating  judgment,  com 
bined  with  an  incessant  attention  to  details.  Na 
ture,  under  such  circumstances,  is  not  so  attractive 
as  she  appears  in  youthful  dreams  ;  admirable  in 
her  original  garb,  she  is  annoying  and  obstinate 
when  disturbed.  The  view  of  country  which 
Friendship  Hill  commands  is  said  to  rival  Switz 
erland  in  its  picturesque  beauty,  but  years  later, 
when  the  romance  of  the  Monongahela  hills  had 
faded  in  the  actualities  of  life,  Gallatin  wrote  of 
it  that  "  he  did  not  know  in  the  United  States 
any  spot  which  afforded  less  means  to  earn  a  bare 
subsistence  for  those  who  could  not  live  by  manual 
labor." 

Gallatin  has  been  blamed  for  "  taking  life  awry 
and  throwing  away  the  advantages  of  education, 
social  position,  and  natural  intelligence,"  by  his 
removal  to  the  frontier,  and  his  career  is  com 
pared  with  that  of  Hamilton  and  Dallas,  who, 
like  him,  foreign  born,  rose  to  eminence  in  poli 
tics,  and  became  secretaries  of  the  Treasury  of 
the  United  States.  But  both  of  these  were  of 
English  -  speaking  races.  No  foreigner  of  any 
other  race  obtained  such  distinction  in  American 
politics  as  Mr.  Gallatin,  and  he  only  because 
he  was  the  choice  of  a  constituency,  to  every 
member  of  which  he  was  personally  known.  It 
is  questionable  whether  in  any  other  condition  of 


30  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

society  he  could  have  secured  advancement  by 
election  —  the  true  source  of  political  power  in 
all  democracies.  John  Marshall,  afterwards  Chief 
Justice,  recognized  Gallatin's  talent  soon  after  his 
arrival  in  Richmond,  offered  him  a  place  in  his 
office  without  a  fee,  and  assured  him  of  future  dis 
tinction  in  the  profession  of  the  law ;  but  Patrick 
Henry  was  the  more  sagacious  counsellor ;  he  ad 
vised  Gallatin  to  go  to  the  West,  and  predicted  his 
success  as  a  statesman.  Modest  as  the  beginning 
seemed  in  the  country  he  had  chosen,  it  was  never 
theless  a  start  in  the  right  direction,  as  the  future 
showed.  It  was  in  no  sense  a  mistake. 

Neither  did  the  affairs  of  the  wilderness  wholly 
debar  intercourse  with  the  civilized  world.  Visiting 
Richmond  every  winter,  he  gradually  extended  the 
circle  of  his  acquaintance,  and  increased  his  per 
sonal  influence  ;  he  also  occasionally  passed  a  few 
weeks  at  Philadelphia.  Two  visits  to  Maine  are 
recorded  in  his  diary,  but  whether  they  were  of 
pleasure  merely  does  not  appear.  One  was  in 
1788,  in  midwinter,  by  stage  and  sleigh.  On  this 
excursion  he  descended  the  Androscoggin  and 
crossed  Merrymeeting  Bay  on  the  ice,  returning 
by  the  same  route  in  a  snow-storm,  which  con 
cealed  the  banks  on  either  side  of  the  river,  so 
that  he  governed  his  course  by  the  direction  of  the 
wind.  With  the  intellect  of  a  prime  minister  he 
had  the  constitution  of  a  pioneer.  On  one  of  these 
occasions  he  intended  to  visit  his  old  friends  and 


EARLY  LIFE.  31 

hosts,  the  Lesderniers,  but  the  difficulty  of  finding 
a  conveyance,  and  the  rumor  that  the  old  gentle' 
man  was  away  from  home,  interfered  with  his 
purpose.  He  remembered  their  kindness,  and 
later  attempted  to  obtain  pensions  for  them  from 
the  United  States  government. 

But  the  time  now  arrived  when  the  current  of 
his  domestic  life  was  permanently  diverted3  and 
set  in  other  channels.  In  May,  1789,  he  married 
Sophie  Allegre,  the  daughter  of  William  Allegre, 
of  a  French  Protestant  family  living  at  Richmond. 
The  father  was  dead,  and  the  mother  took  lodgers, 
of  whom  Gallatin  was  one.  For  more  than  a  yeat 
he  had  addressed  her  and  secured  her  affections. 
Her  mother  now  refused  her  consent,  and  uo 
choice  was  left  to  the  young  lovers  but  to  marry 
without  it.1  They  passed  a  few  happy  months  at 
Friendship  Hill,  when  suddenly  she  died.  From 
this  time  Mr.  Gallatin  lost  all  heart  in  the  west 
ern  venture,  and  his  most  earnest  wish  was  to  turn 
his  back  forever  upon  Fayette  County.  In  his 
suffering  he  would  have  returned  to  Geneva  to 
Mademoiselle  Pictet,  could  he  have  sold  his  Vir 
ginia  lands.  But  this  had  become  impossible  at 
any  price,  and  he  had  no  other  pecuniary  resource 
but  the  generosity  of  his  family. 

1  Little  is  known  of  this  short  but  touching  episode  in  Mr.  Gal- 
latin's  life.  The  young  lady  was  warmly  attached  to  him,  and 
the  letter  written  to  her  mother  asking  forgiveness  for  her  mar 
riage  is  charmingly  expressed  and  full  of  feeling. 


32  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

Meanwhile  the  revolution  had  broken  out  in 
France.  The  rights  of  man  had  been  proclaimed 
on  the  Champ  de  Mars.  All  Europe  was  uneasy 
and  alarmed,  and  nowhere  offered  a  propitious 
field  for  peaceful  labor.  But  Gallatin  did  not 
long  need  other  distraction  than  he  was  to  find 
at  home. 


CHAPTER  II. 

PENNSYLVANIA  LEGISLATURE. 

POLITICAL  revolutions  are  the  opportunity  of 
youth.  In  England,  Pitt  and  Fox;  in  America, 
Hamilton  and  Gouverneur  Morris ;  in  Europe, 
Napoleon  and  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  before  they  reached 
their  thirtieth  year,  helped  to  shape  the  political 
destiny  of  nations.  The  early  maturity  of  Gal- 
latin  was  no  less  remarkable.  In  his  voluminous 
correspondence  there  is  no  trace  of  youth.  At 
nineteen  his  habits  of  thought  were  already  formed, 
and  his  moral  and  intellectual  tendencies  were 
clearly  marked  in  his  character,  and  understood 
by  himself.  His  tastes  also  were  already  devel 
oped.  His  life,  thereafter,  was  in  every  sense  a 
growth.  The  germs  of  every  excellence,  which 
came  to  full  fruition  in  his  subsequent  career,  may 
be  traced  in  the  preferences  of  his  academic  days. 
From  youth  to  age  he  was  consistent  with  himself. 
His  mind  was  of  that  rare  and  original  order 
which,  reasoning  out  its  own  conclusions,  seldom 
has  cause  to  change. 

His  political  opinions  were  early  formed.  A 
letter  written  by  him  in  October,  1783,  before  he 
had  completed  his  twenty- third  year,  shows  the 


34  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

maturity  of  his  intellect,  and  his  analytic  habit 
of  thought.  An  extract  gives  the  nature  of  the 
reasons  which  finally  determined  him  to  make  his 
home  in  America :  — 

"  This  is  what  by  degrees  greatly  influenced  my  judg< 
ment.  After  my  arrival  in  this  country  I  was  early 
convinced,  upon  a  comparison  of  American  governments 
with  that  of  Geneva,  that  the  latter  is  founded  on  false 
principles ;  that  the  judicial  power,  in  civil  as  well  as 
criminal  cases,  the  executive  power  wholly,  and  two 
thirds  of  the  legislative  power  being  lodged  in  two  bodies 
which  are  almost  self-made,  and  the  members  of  which 
are  chosen  for  life,  —  it  is  hardly  possible  but  that  this 
formidable  aristocracy  should,  sooner  or  later,  destroy 
the  equilibrium  which  it  was  supposed  could  be  main 
tained  at  Geneva." 

The  period  from  the  peace  of  1783  to  the  adop 
tion  of  the  Federal  Constitution  in  1787  was  one 
of  political  excitement.  The  utter  failure  of  the 
old  confederation  to  serve  the  purposes  of  national 
defence  and  safety  for  which  it  was  framed  had 
been  painfully  felt  during  the  war.  Independence 
had  been  achieved  under  it  rather  than  by  it,  the 
patriotic  action  of  some  of  the  States  supplying 
'die  deficiencies  of  others  less  able  or  less  willino-. 

O 

By  the  radical  inefficiency  of  the  confederation 
the  war  had  been  protracted,  its  success  repeatedly 
imperilled,  and,  at  its  close,  the  results  gained  by 
it  were  constantly  menaced.  The  more  perfect 
union  which  was  the  outcome  of  the  deliberations 


PENNSYLVANIA  LEGISLATURE.  35 

of  the  Federal  Convention  was  therefore  joyfully 
accepted  by  the  people  at  large.  Indeed,  it  was 
popular  pressure,  and  not  the  arguments  of  its 
advocates,  that  finally  overcame  the  formidable 
opposition  in  and  out  of  the  convention  to  the 
Constitution.  No  written  record  remains  of  Mr. 
Gallatin's  course  during  the  sessions  of  the  Federal 
Convention.  He  was  not  a  member  of  the  body, 
nor  is  his  name  connected  with  any  public  act, 
having  any  bearing  upon  its  deliberations.  Of 
the  direction  of  his  influence,  however,  there  can 
be  no  doubt.  He  had  an  abiding  distrust  of  strong 
government,  —  a  dread  of  the  ambitions  of  men. 
Precisely  what  form  he  would  have  substituted 
for  the  legislative  and  executive  system  adopted 
nowhere  appears  in  his  writings,  but  certainly 
neither  president  nor  senate  would  have  been  in 
cluded.  They  bore  too  close  a  resemblance  to 
king  and  lords  to  win  his  approval,  no  matter 
how  restricted  their  powers.  He  would  evidently 
have  leaned  to  a  single  house,  with  a  temporary  ex 
ecutive  directly  appointed  by  itself  ;  or,  if  elected 
by  the  people,  then  for  a  short  term  of  office,  with 
out  renewal  ;  and  he  would  have  reduced  its  legis 
lative  powers  to  the  narrowest  possible  limit.  The 
best  government  he  held  to  be  that  which  governs 
least ;  and  many  of  the  ablest  of  that  incomparable 
body  of  men,  who  welded  this  Union,  held  these 
views.  But  the  yearning  of  the  people  was  in 
the  other  direction.  They  felt  the  need  of  gov< 


36  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

ernment.  They  wanted  the  protection  of  a  strong 
arm.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  thirteen 
colonies,  which  declared  their  independence  in 
1776,  were  all  sea-board  communities,  each  with 
its  port.  They  were  all  trading  communities 
The  East,  with  its  fisheries  and  timber ;  the 
Middle  States,  with  their  agricultural  products 
and  peltries  ;  the  South,  with  its  tobacco ;  each 
saw,  in  that  freedom  from  the  restrictions  of  the 
English  navigation  laws  which  the  treaty  of 
peace  secured,  the  promise  of  a  boundless  com 
merce.  To  protect  commerce  there  must  be  a 
national  power  somewhere.  Since  the  peace  the 
government  had  gained  neither  the  affection  of 
its  own  citizens  nor  the  respect  of  foreign  powers. 
The  Federal  Constitution  was  adopted  Septem 
ber  17,  1787.  The  first  State  to  summon  a  con 
vention  of  ratification  was  Pennsylvania.  No  one 
of  the  thirteen  original  States  was  more  directly 
interested  than  herself.  The  centre  of  population 
lay  somewhere  in  her  limits,  and  there  was  rea 
sonable  ground  for  hope  that  Philadelphia  would 
become  once  more  the  seat  of  government.  The 
delegates  met  at  Philadelphia  on  November  2.  An 
opposition  declared  itself  at  the  beginning  of  the 
proceedings.  Regardless  of  the  popular  impatience, 
the  majority  allowed  full  scope  to  adverse  argu 
ment,  and  it  was  not  until  December  12  that  the 
final  vote  was  taken  and  the  Constitution  ratified, 
without  recommendations,  by  a  majority  of  two  to 


PENNSYLVANIA  LEGISLATURE.  37 

one.  In  this  body  Fayette  County  was  represented 
by  Nicholas  Breading  and  John  Smilie.  The  lat 
ter  gentleman,  of  Scotch-Irish  birth,  an  adroit  de 
bater,  led  the  opposition.  In  the  course  of  his 
criticisms  he  enunciated  the  doctrines  which  were 
soon  to  become  a  party  cry ;  the  danger  of  the  Con 
stitution  "  in  inviting  rather  than  guarding  against 
the  approaches  of  tyranny;"  "its  tendency  to  a 
consolidation,  not  a  confederation,  of  the  States." 
Mr.  Gallatin  does  not  appear  to  have  sought  to 
be  a  delegate  to  this  body,  but  his  hand  may  be 
traced  through  the  speeches  of  Smilie  in  the  pre 
cision  with  which  the  principles  of  the  opposition 
were  formulated  and  declared ;  and  his  subsequent 
course  plainly  indicates  that  his  influence  was  ex 
erted  in  the  interest  of  the  dissatisfied  minority. 
The  ratification  was  received  by  the  people  with 
intense  satisfaction,  but  the  delay  in  debate  lost 
the  State  the  honor  of  precedence  in  the  honorable 
vote  of  acquiescence, — the  Delaware  convention 
having  taken  the  lead  by  a  unanimous  vote.  For 
the  moment  the  Pennsylvania  Anti-Federalists 
clung  to  the  hope  that  the  Constitution  might  yet 
fail  to  receive  the  assent  of  the  required  number 
of  States,  but  as  one  after  another  fell  into  line, 
this  hope  vanished. 

One  bold  expedient  remained.  The  ratification 
of  some  of  the  States  was  coupled  with  the  recom 
mendation  of  certain  amendments.  Massachusetts 
led  the  way  in  this,  Virginia  followed,  and  New 


38  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

York,  which,  in  the  language  of  the  day,  became 
the  eleventh  pillar  of  the  Federal  edifice,  on  July 
26, 1788,  accompanied  her  ratification  with  a  circu 
lar  letter  to  the  governors  of  all  the  States,  rec 
ommending  that  a  general  convention  be  called.1 

The  argument  taken  in  this  letter  was  the  only 
one  which  had  any  chance  of  commending  itself 
to  popular  favor.  It  was  in  these  words  :  "  that 
the  apprehension  and  discontents  which  the  ar 
ticles  occasion  cannot  be  removed  or  allayed  un 
less  an  act  to  provide  for  the  calling  of  a  new 
convention  be  among  the  first  that  shall  be  passed 
by  the  next  Congress."  This  document,  made 
public  at  once,  encouraged  the  Pennsylvania  Anti- 
Federalists  to  a  last  effort  to  bring  about  a  new 
convention,  to  undo  or  radically  alter  the  work  of 
the  old.  A  conference  held  at  Harrisburg,  on 
September  3,  1788,  was  participated  in  by  thirty- 
three  gentlemen,  from  various  sections  of  the 
State,  who  assembled  in  response  to  the  call  of  a 
circular  letter  which  originated  in  the  county  of 
Cumberland  in  the  month  of  August.  The  city 
of  Philadelphia  and  thirteen  counties  were  rep 
resented  ;  six  of  the  dissenting  members  of  the 
late  convention  were  present,  among  whom  was 
Smilie.  He  and  Gallatin  represented  the  county 
of  Fayette. 

1  The  drafting  of  this  letter  was,  notwithstanding  his  protest,  in 
trusted  to  John  Jay,  one  of  the  strongest  of  the  Federal  leaders^ 
and  a  warm  supporter  of  the  Constitution  as  it  stood. 


PENNSYLVANIA  LE\ 


Smilie,  Gallatin's  earliest  political  friend,  was 
born  in  1742,  and  was  therefore  about  twenty 
years  his  senior.  He  came  to  the  United  States  in 
youth,  and  had  grown  up  in  the  section  he  now  rep 
resented.  His  popularity  is  shown  by  his  service 
in  the  state  Legislature,  and  during  twelve  years 
in  Congress  as  representative  or  as  senator.  In 
any  estimate  of  Mr.  Gallatin,  this  early  influence 
must  be  taken  into  account.  The  friendship  thus 
formed  continued  until  Smilie's  death  in  1816. 
From  the  adviser  he  became  the  ardent  supporter 
of  Mr.  Gallatin.  Blair  McClanachan,  of  Phila 
delphia  County,  was  elected  chairman  of  the  con 
ference.  The  result  of  this  deliberation  was  a 
report  in  the  form  of  a  series  of  resolutions,  of 
which  two  drafts,  both  in  Mr.  Gallatin's  hand 
writing,  are  among  his  papers  now  in  the  keeping 
of  the  New  York  Historical  Society.  The  origi 
nal  resolutions  wsre  broad  in  scope,  and  suggested 
a  plan  of  action  of  a  dual  nature ;  the  one  of  which 
failing,  resort  could  be  had  to  the  other  without 
compromising  the  movement  by  delay.  In  a  word 
it  proposed  an  opposition  by  a  party  organization. 
The  first  resolution  was  adroitly  framed  to  avoid 
the  censure  with  which  the  people  at  large,  whose 
satisfaction  with  the  new  Constitution  had  grown 
with  the  fresh  adhesions  of  State  after  State  to 
positive  enthusiasm,  would  surely  condemn  any  at 
tempt  to  dissolve  the  Union  formed  under  its 
provisions.  This  resolution  declared  that  it  was 


40  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

in  order  to  prevent  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  and 
to  secure  liberty,  that  a  revision  was  necessary. 
The  second  expressed  the  opinion  of  the  confer 
ence  to  be,  that  the  safest  manner  to  obtain  such 
revision  was  to  conform  to  the  request  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  and  to  urge  the  calling  of  a  new  con 
vention,  and  recommended  that  the  Pennsylvania 
Legislature  be  petitioned  to  apply  for  that  pur 
pose  to  the  new  Congress.  These  were  declar 
atory.  The  third  and  fourth  provided,  first,  for  an 
organization  of  committees  in  the  several  counties 
to  correspond  with  each  other  and  with  similar 
committees  in  other  States ;  secondly,  invited  the 
friends  to  amendments  in  the  several  States  to 
meet  in  conference  at  a  fixed  time  and  place. 
This  plan  of  committees  of  correspondence  and 
of  a  meeting  of  delegates  was  simply  a  revival  of 
the  methods  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  from  whose 
action  sprung  the  first  Continental  Congress  of 
1774. 

The  formation  of  such  an  organization  would 
surely  have  led  to  disturbance,  perhaps  to  civil 
war.  During  the  progress  of  the  New  York  con 
vention  swords  and  bayonets  had  been  drawn,  and 
blood  had  been  shed  in  the  streets  of  Albany, 
where  the  Anti-Federalists  excited  popular  rage 
by  burning  the  new  Constitution.  But  the 
thirty-three  gentlemen  who  met  at  Harrisburg 
wisely  tempered  these  resolutions  to  a  moderate 
tone.  Thus  modified,  they  recommended,  First, 


PENNSYLVANIA  LEGISLATURE.  41 

that  the  people  of  the  State  should  acquiesce  in 
the  organization  of  the  government,  while  holding 
in  view  the  necessity  of  very  considerable  amend 
ments  and  alterations  essential  to  preserve  the 
peace  and  harmony  of  the  Union.  Secondly, 
that  a  revision  by  general  convention  was  neces 
sary.  Thirdly,  that  the  Legislature  should  be  re 
quested  to  apply  to  Congress  for  that  purpose. 
The  petition  recommended  twelve  amendments, 
selected  from  those  already  proposed  by  other 
States.  These  were  of  course  restrictive.  The 
report  was  made  public  in  the  "  Pennsylvania 
Packet  "  of  September  15.  With  this  the  agi 
tation  appears  to  have  ceased.  On  September 
13  Congress  notified  the  States  by  resolution  to 
appoint  electors  under  the  provisions  of  the  Con 
stitution.  The  unanimous  choice  of  Washington 
as  President  hushed  all  opposition,  and  for  a 
time  the  Anti-Federalists  sunk  into  insignificance. 
The  persistent  labors  of  the  friends  of  revision 
were  not  without  result.  The  amendments  pro 
posed  by  Virginia  and  New  York  were  laid 
before  the  House  of  Representatives.  Seventeen 
received  the  two  thirds  vote  of  the  House.  After 
conference  with  the  Senate,  in  which  Mr.  Mad 
ison  appeared  as  manager  for  the  House,  these, 
reduced  in  number  to  twelve  by  elimination  and 
compression,  were  adopted  by  the  requisite  two 
thirds  vote,  and  transmitted  to  the  Legislatures  of 
the  States  for  approval.  Ratified  by  a  sufficient 


42  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

number  of  States,  they  became  a  part  of  the  Con 
stitution.  They  were  general,  and  declaratory  of 
personal  rights,  and  in  no  instance  restrictive  of 
the  power  of  the  general  government. 

In  1789  the  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania  calling 
a  convention  to  revise  the  Constitution  of  the 
State,  Mr.  Gallatin  was  sent  as  a  delegate  from 
Fayette  County.  To  the  purposes  of  this  conven 
tion  he  was  opposed,  as  a  dangerous  precedent. 
He  had  endeavored  to  organize  an  opposition  to  it 
in  the  western  counties,  by  correspondence  with 
his  political  friends.  His  objections  were  the  dan 
gers  of  alterations  in  government,  and  the  absurd 
ity  of  the  idea  that  the  Constitution  ever  contem 
plated  a  change  by  the  will  of  a  mere  majority. 
Such  a  doctrine,  once  admitted,  would  enable  not 
only  the  Legislature,  but  a  majority  of  the  more 
popular  house,  were  two  established,  to  make  an 
other  appeal  to  the  people  on  the  first  occasion, 
and,  instead  of  establishing  on  solid  foundations  a 
new  government,  would  open  the  door  to  perpet 
ual  change,  and  destroy  that  stability  which  is 
essential  to  the  welfare  of  a  nation ;  since  no  con 
stitution  acquires  the  permanent  affection  of  the 
people,  save  in  proportion  to  its  duration  and  age. 
Finally,  such  changes  would  sooner  or  later  con 
clude  in  an  appeal  to  arms,  —  the  true  meaning  of 
the  popular  and  dangerous  words,  "  an  appeal  to 
the  people."  The  opposition  was  begun  too  late, 
however,  to  admit  of  combined  effort,  and  was 


PENNSYLVANIA  LEGISLATURE.  43 

not  persisted  in  ;  and  Mr.  Gallatin  himself,  with 
practical  good  sense,  consented  to  serve  as  a  dele 
gate.     Throughout  his  political  course  the  pride 
of  mastery  never  controlled  his  actions.     When 
debarred  from  leadership  he  did  not  sulk  in    his 
tent,  but  threw  his  weight  in  the  direction  of  his 
principles.     The  convention  met  at  Philadelphia 
on  November  24,  1789,  and  closed  its  labors  on 
September  2,  1790.     This  was  Gallatin's  appren 
ticeship  in  the  public  service.     Among  his  papers 
are  a  number  of  memoranda,  some  of  them  indi 
cating  much  elaboration  of  speeches  made,  or  in 
tended  to  be  made,  in  this  body.     One  is  an  argu 
ment  in  favor  of  enlarging  the  representation  in 
the  House ;  another  is  against  a  plan  of  choosing 
senators  by  electors  ;  another  concerns  the  liberty 
of  the  press.     There  is,  further,  a  memorandum  of 
his  motion  in  regard  to  the  right  of  suffrage,  by 
virtue  of  which  "  every  freeman  who  has  attained 
the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  and  been  a  resident 
and  inhabitant  during  one  year  next  before  the 
day  of  election,  every  naturalized  freeholder,  every 
naturalized  citizen  who  had  been  assessed  for  state 
or  county  taxes  for  two  years  before  election  day, 
or  who  had  resided  ten  years  successively  in  the 
State,  should  be  entitled  to  the  suffrage,  paupers 
and  vagabonds  only  being  excluded."     Certainly, 
in  his  conservative   limitations  upon  suffrage,  he 
did  not  consult  his  own  interest  as  a  large  land 
holder  inviting  settlement,  nor  pander  to  the  nat 
ural  desires  of  his  constituency. 


44  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

In  an  account  of  this  convention,  written  at  a 
later  period,  Mr.  Gallatin  said  that  it  was  the 
first  public  body  to  which  he  was  elected,  and  that 
he  took  but  a  subordinate  share  in  the  debates ; 
that  it  was  one  of  the  ablest  bodies  of  which  he 
was  ever  a  member,  and  with  which  he  was  ac 
quainted,  and,  excepting  Madison  and  Marshall, 
that  it  embraced  as  much  talent  and  knowledge 
as  any  Congress  from  1795  to  1812,  beyond  which 
his  personal  knowledge  did  not  extend.  Among 
its  members  were  Thomas  McKean,  signer  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  president  of  the 
Continental  Congress,  Thomas  Mifflin  and  Timo 
thy  Pickering,  of  the  Revolutionary  army,  and 
Smilie  and  Findley,  Gallatin's  political  friends. 
General  Mifflin  was  its  president. 

But  mental  distraction  brought  Mr.  Gallatin  no 
peace  of  heart  at  this  period,  and  when  the  excite 
ment  of  the  winter  was  over  he  fell  into  a  state 
of  almost  morbid  melancholy.  To  his  friend  Ba- 
dollet  he  wrote  from  Philadelphia,  early  in  March, 
that  life  in  Fayette  County  had  no  more  charms 
for  him,  and  that  he  would  gladly  leave  America. 
But  his  lands  were  unsalable  at  any  price,  and  he 
saw  no  means  of  support  at  Geneva.  Some  one 
has  said,  with  a  profound  knowledge  of  human 
nature,  that  no  man  is  sure  of  happiness  who  has 
not  the  capacity  for  continuous  labor  of  a  disa 
greeable  kind.  The  occasional  glimpses  into  Mr. 
Gallatin's  inner  nature,  which  his  correspondence 


PENNSYLVANIA   LEGISLATURE.  45 

affords,  show  that  up  to  this  period  he  was  not 
supposed  by  his  friends  or  by  himself  to  have  this 
capacity.  In  the  letter  which  his  guardian  wrote 
to  him  after  his  flight  from  home,  he  was  re 
proached  with  his  "natural  indolence."  His  good 
friend,  Mademoiselle  Pictet,  accused  him  of  being 
hard  to  please,  and  disposed  to  ennui  ;  arid  again, 
as  late  as  1787,  repeats  to  him,  in  a  tone  of  sorrow, 
the  reports  brought  to  her  of  his  "  continuance  in 
his  old  habit  of  indolence,"  his  indifference  to  so 
ciety,  his  neglect  of  his  dress,  and  general  indiffer 
ence  to  everything  but  study  and  reading,  tastes 
which,  she  added,  he  might  as  well  have  cultivated 
at  Geneva  as  in  the  New  World ;  and  he  himself, 
in  the  letter  to  Badollet  just  mentioned,  considers 
that  his  habits  and  his  laziness  would  prove  insu 
perable  bars  to  his  success  in  any  profession  in  Eu 
rope.  In  estimation  of  this  self-condemnation,  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Genevans  were  in 
tellectual  Spartans.  Gallatin  must  be  measured 
by  that  high  standard.  But  if  the  charge  of  indo 
lence  could  have  ever  justly  lain  against  Gallatin. 
—  a  charge  which  his  intellectual  vigor  at  twenty- 
seven  seems  to  challenge,  —  it  certainly  could  never 
have  been  sustained  after  he  fairly  entered  on  his 
political  and  public  career.  In  October,  1790,  he 
was  elected  by  a  two  thirds  majority  to  represent 
Fayette  County  in  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania ;  James  Findley  was  his  colleague, 
John  Smilie  being  advanced  to  the  state  Senate. 


46  ALBERT   GALLATIN. 

Mr.  Gallatin  was  reflected   to  the   Assembly  in 
1791  and  1792,  without  opposition. 

Among  his  papers  there  is  a  memorandum  of 
his  legislative  service  during  these  three  years, 
and  a  manuscript  volume  of  extracts  from  the 
Journals  of  the  House,  from  January  14,  1791,  to 
December  17,  1794.  They  form  part  of  the  ex 
tensive  mass  of  documents  and  letters  which  were 
collected  and  partially  arranged  by  himself,  with 
a  view  to  posthumous  publication.  Here  is  an 
extract  from  the  memorandum :  — 

"  I  acquired  an  extraordinary  influence  in  that  body 
[the  Pennsylvania  House  of  Representatives]  ;  the  more 
remarkable  as  I  was  always  in  a  party  minority.  I  was 
indebted  for  it  to  my  great  industry  and  to  the  facility 
with  which  I  could  understand  and  carry  on  the  current 
business.  The  laboring  oar  was  left  almost  exclusively 
to  me.  In  the  session  of  1791-1792, 1  was  put  on  thirty- 
five  committees,  prepared  all  their  reports,  and  drew 
all  their  bills.  Absorbed  by  those  details,  my  attention 
was  turned  exclusively  to  administrative  laws,  and  not 
to  legislation  properly  so  called.  ...  I  failed,  though 
the  bill  I  had  introduced  passed  the  House,  in  my  efforts 
to  lay  the  foundation  for  a  better  system  of  education. 
Primary  education  was  almost  universal  in  Pennsyl 
vania,  but  very  bad,  and  the  bulk  of  school-masters  in 
competent,  miserably  paid,  and  held  in  no  consideration. 
It  appeared  to  me  that  in  order  to  create  a  sufficient 
number  of  competent  teachers,  and  to  raise  the  standard 
of  general  education,  intermediate  academical  education 
was  an  indispensable  preliminary  step,  and  the  object  of 


PENNSYLVANIA  LEGISLATURE.  47 

the  bill  was  to  establish  in  each  county  an  academy, 
allowing  to  each  out  of  the  treasury  a  sum  equal  to 
that  raised  by  taxation  in  the  county  for  its  support. 
But  there  was  at  that  time  in  Pennsylvania  a  Quaker 
and  a  German  opposition  to  every  plan  of  general  edu 
cation. 

"  The  spirit  of  internal  improvements  had  not  yet 
been  awakened.  Still,  the  first  turnpike-road  in  the 
United  States  was  that  from  Philadelphia  to  Lancaster, 
which  met  with  considerable  opposition.  This,  as  well 
as  every  temporary  improvement  in  our  communications 
(roads  and  rivers)  and  preliminary  surveys,  met,  of 
course,  with  my  warm  support.  But  it  was  in  the  fiscal 
department  that  I  was  particularly  employed,  and  the 
circumstances  of  the  times  favored  the  restoration  of  the 
nnances  of  the  State. 

"  The  report  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means 
of  the  session  1790-91  was  entirely  prepared  by  me, 
known  to  be  so,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  my  reputa 
tion.  I  was  quite  astonished  at  the  general  encomiums 
bestowed  upon  it,  and  was  not  at  all  aware  that  I  had 
done  so  well.  It  was  perspicuous  and  comprehensive ; 
but  I  am  confident  that  its  true  merit,  and  that  which 
gained  me  the  general  confidence,  was  its  being  founded 
in  strict  justice,  without  the  slightest  regard  to  party 
feelings  or  popular  prejudices.  The  principles  assumed, 
and  which  were  carried  into  effect,  were  the  immediate 
reimbursement  and  extinction  of  the  state  paper-money, 
the  immediate  payment  in  specie  of  all  the  current  ex 
penses,  or  warrants  on  the  treasury  (the  postponement 
and  uncertainty  of  which  had  given  rise  to  shameful  and 
corrupt  speculations),  and  provision  for  discharging  with- 


48  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

out  defalcation  every  debt  and  engagement  previously 
recognized  by  the  State.  In  conformity  with  this,  the 
State  paid  to  its  creditors  the  difference  between  the 
nominal  amount  of  the  state  debt  assumed  by  the  United 
States  and  the  rate  at  which  it  was  funded  by  the  act 
of  Congress. 

"  The  proceeds  of  the  public  lands,  together  with  the 
arrears,  were  the  fund  which  not  only  discharged  all  the 
public  debts,  but  left  a  large  surplus.  The  apprehension 
that  this  would  be  squandered  by  the  Legislature  was 
the  principal  inducement  for  chartering  the  Bank  of 
Pennsylvania,  with  a  capital  of  two  millions  of  dollars, 
of  which  the  State  subscribed  one  half.  This,  and  simi 
lar  subsequent  investments,  enabled  Pennsylvania  to  de 
fray,  out  of  the  dividends,  all  the  expenses  of  govern 
ment  without  any  direct  tax  during  the  forty  ensuing 
years,  and  till  the  adoption  of  the  system  of  internal 
improvement,  which  required  new  resources. 

"  It  was  my  constant  assiduity  to  business,  and  the 
assistance  derived  from  it  by  many  members,  which  en 
abled  the  Republican  party  in  the  Legislature,  then  a 
minority  on  a  joint  ballot,  to  elect  me,  and  no  other  but 
me  of  that  party  Senator  of  the  United  States."  l 

The  seat  of  government  was  changed  from  New- 
York  to  Philadelphia  in  1790,  and  the  first  Con- 
^_j 

1  Among  the  reports  enumerated  by  Mr.  Gallatin,  as  those  of 
'which  he  was  the  author,  is  one  made  by  a  committee  on  March 
22,  1793,  that  they.  ...  are  of  opinion  slavery  is  inconsistent 
7ith  every  principle  of  humanity,  justice,  and  right,  and  repug- 
jant  to  the  spirit  and  express  letter  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
Commonwealth.  Added  to  this  was  a  resolution  for  its  abolition 
in  the  Commonwealth. 


PENNSYLVANIA  LEGISLATURE.  49 

gress  assembled  there  in  the  early  days  of  Decem 
ber  for  its  final  session.     Philadelphia  was  in  glee 
over  the  transfer  of  the  departments.     The  con 
vention  which  framed  the  new  state  Constitution 
met  here  in  the  fall,  and  the  Legislature  was  also 
holding  its  sessions.    The  atmosphere  was  political. 
The  national  and  local  representatives  met  each 
other  at  all  times  and  in  all  places,  and  the  pub 
lic  affairs  were  the  chief  topic  in  and  out  of  doors. 
In  this  busy  whirl  Gallatin  made  many  friends, 
but  Philadelphia  was  no  more  to  his  taste  as  a 
residence  than  Boston.     He  was   disgusted  with 
the  ostentatious  display  of  wealth,  the  result  not 
of   industry   but  of  speculation,  and  not   in   the 
hands  of  the  most  deserving  members  of  the  com 
munity.     Later  he  became  more  reconciled  to  the 
tone  of  Pennsylvania  society,  comparing  it  with 
that  of  New  York ;.  he  was  especially  pleased  with 
its  democratic  spirit,  and  the  absence  of.  family  in 
fluence.     "In  Pennsylvania,"  he  says,  "not  only 
we   have    neither    Livingstons,   nor   Rensselaers, 
but  from  the  suburbs  of  Philadelphia  to  the  banks 
of  the  Ohio  I  do  not  know  a  single  family  that 
has  any  extensive  influence.     An  equal  distribu 
tion  of  property  has  rendered  every  individual  in 
dependent,  and  there  is  amongst  us  true  and  real 
equality.    In  a  word,  as  I  am  lazy,  I  like  a  country 
where  living  is  cheap  ;  and  as  I  am  poor,  I  like  a 
country  where  no  person  is  very  rich."     Hamil 
ton's  excise  bill  was  a  bone  of  contention  in  the 
4 


50  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

national  and  state  Legislatures  throughout  the 
winter.  Direct  taxation  upon  anything  was  un 
popular,  that  on  distilled  spirits  the  most  distaste 
ful  to  Pennsylvania,  where  whiskey  stills  were 
numerous  in  the  Alleghanies.  To  the  bill  intro 
duced  into  Congress  a  reply  was  immediately 
made  January  14,  1791,  by  the  Pennsylvania  As 
sembly  in  a  series  of  resolutions  which  are  sup 
posed  to  have  been  drafted  by  Mr.  Gallatin,  and  to 
have  been  the  first  legislative  paper  from  his  pen. 
They  distinctly  charged  that  the  obnoxious  bill 
was  "  subversive  of  the  peace,  liberty,  and  rights 
of  the  citizen." 

Tax  by  excise  has  always  been  offensive  to 
the  American  people,  as  it  was  to  their  ancestors 
across  the  sea.  It  was  characterized  by  the  first 
Continental  Congress  of  1774  as  "  the  horror  of 
all  free  States."  Notwithstanding  their  warmth, 
these  resolutions  passed  the  Assembly  by  a  vote  of 
40  to  16.  The  course  of  this  excitement  must 
be  followed  as  it  swept  Mr.  Gallatin  in  its  mad 
current,  and  but  for  his  self-control,  courage,  and 
adroitness  would  have  wrecked  him  on  the  break 
ers  at  the  outset  of  his  political  voyage.  The  ex 
cise  law  passed  Congress  on  March  3,  1791.  On 
June  22  the  state  Legislature,  by  a  vote  of  36  to 
11,  requested  their  senators  and  representatives 
in  Congress  to  oppose  -every  part  of  the  bill  which 
"  shall  militate  against  the  rights  and  liberties  of 
the  people." 


PENNSYLVANIA   LEGISLATURE.  51 

The  western  counties  of  Pennsylvania — West 
moreland,  Fayette,  Washington,  and  Allegheny  — 
lie  around  the  head- waters  of  the  Ohio  in  a  radius 
of  more  than  a  hundred  miles.  At  this  time  they 
contained  a  population  of  about  seventy  thousand 
souls.  Pittsburgh,  the  seat  of  justice,  had  about 
twelve  hundred  inhabitants.  The  Alleghany 
Mountains  separate  this  wild  region  from  the 
eastern  section  of  the  State.  There  were  few 
roads  of  any  kind,  and  these  lay  through  woods. 
The  mountain  passes  could  be  travelled  only  on 
foot  or  horseback.  The  only  trade  with  the  East 
was  by  pack-horses,  while  communication  with  the 
South  was  cut  off  by  hostile  Indian  tribes  who 
held  the  banks  of  the  Ohio.  This  isolation  from 
the  older,  denser,  and  more  civilized  settlements 
bred  in  the  people  a  spirit  of  self-reliance  and  in 
dependence.  They  were  in  great  part  Scotch- 
Irish  Presbyterians,  a  religious  and  warlike  race 
to  whom  the  hatred  of  an  exciseman  was  a  tradi 
tion  of  their  forefathers.  Having  no  market  for 
their  grain,  they  were  compelled  to  preserve  it  by 
converting  it  into  whiskey.  The  still  was  the 
necessary  appendage  of  every  farm.  The  tax  was 
light,  but  payable  in  money,  of  which  there  was 
little  or  none.  Its  imposition,  therefore,  coupled 
with  the  declaration  of  its  oppressive  nature  by 
the  Pennsylvania  Legislature,  excited  a  spirit  of 
determined  opposition  near  akin  to  revolution. 

Unpopular  in  all  the  western  part  of  the  state, 


52  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

Hamilton's  bill  was  especially  odious  to  the  people 
of  Washington  County.  The  first  meeting  in  op 
position  to  it  was  held  at  Red  Stone  Old  Fort  or 
Brownsville,  the  site  of  one  of  those  ancient  re 
mains  of  the  mound-builders  which  abound  in  the 
western  valleys.  It  was  easily  reached  by  Brad- 
dock's  Road,  the  chief  highway  of  the  country. 
Here  gathered  on  July  27,  1791,  a  number  of  per 
sons  opposed  to  the  law,  when  it  was  agreed  that 
county  committees  should  be  convened  in  the  four 
counties  at  the  respective  seats  of  justice.  Brack- 
enridge,  in  his  "  Incidents  of  the  Western  Insur 
rection,"  says  that  Albert  Gallatin  was  clerk  of 
the  meeting.  One  of  these  committees  met  in  the 
town  of  Washington  on  August  23,  when  violent 
resolutions  were  adopted.  Gallatin,  engaged  at 
Philadelphia,  was  not  present  at  this  assemblage, 
three  of  whose  members  were  deputed  to  meet 
delegates  from  the  counties  of  Westmoreland, 
Fayette,  and  Allegheny,  at  Pittsburgh,  on  the  first 
Tuesday  in  September  following,  to  agree  upon 
an  address  to  the  Legislature  on  the  subject  of 
excise  and  other  grievances.  At  the  Pittsburgh 
meeting  eleven  delegates  appeared  for  the  four 
counties.  The  resolutions  adopted  by  them,  gen 
eral  in  character,  read  more  like  a  declaration  of 
'grievances  as  a  basis  for  revolution  than  a  petition 
for  special  redress.  No  wonder  that  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  stigmatized  them  as  "in temper, 
ate."  They  charge  that  in  the  laws  of  the  late 


PENNSYLVANIA  LEGISLATURE.  53 

Congress  hasty  strides  had  been  made  to  all  that 
was  unjust  and  oppressive.  They  complain  of  the 
increase  in  the  salaries  of  officials,  of  the  unreason 
able  interest  of  the  national  debt,  of  the  non-dis 
crimination  between  original  holders  and  trans 
ferees  of  the  public  securities,  of  the  National  Bank 
as  a  base  offspring  of  the  funding  system  ;  finally, 
in  detail,  of  the  excise  law  of  March  3,  1791.  At 
this  meeting  James  Marshall  and  David  Bradford 
represented  Washington  County. 

In  August  offices  of  inspection  were  opened. 
The  spirit  of  resistance  was  now  fully  aroused, 
and  in  the  early  days  of  September  the  collectors 
for  Washington,  Westmoreland,  and  Fayette  were 
treated  with  violence.  Unwilling  to  proceed  to 
excessive  measures,  and  no  doubt  swayed  by  the 
attitude  of  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature,  Congress 
in  October  referred  the  law  back  to  Hamilton  for 
revision.  He  reported  an  amended  act  on  March 
6,  1792,  which  was  immediately  passed,  and  be 
came  a  law  March  8.  It  was  to  take  effect  on 
the  last  day  of  June  succeeding.  By  it  the  rate 
of  duty  was  reduced,  a  privilege  of  time  as  to  the 
running  of  licenses  of  stills  granted,  and  the  tax 
ordered  only  for  such  time  as  they  were  actually 
used. 

But  these  modifications  did  not  satisfy  the  mal 
contents  of  the  four  western  counties,  who  met 
again  on  August  21,  1792,  at  Pittsburgh.  Of  this 
second  Pittsburgh  meeting  Albert  Gallatin  was 


54  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

chosen  secretary.  Badollet  went  up  with  Gallatin. 
John  Smilie,  James  Marshall,  and  James  Bradford 
of  Washington  County  were  present.  Bradford, 
Marshall,  Gallatin,  and  others  were  appointed  to 
draw  up  a  remonstrance  to  Congress.  In  order 
to  carry  out  with  regularity  and  concert  the 
measures  agreed  upon,  a  committee  of  correspond 
ence  was  appointed,  and  the  meeting  closed  with 
the  adoption  of  the  violent  resolutions  passed  at 
the  Washington  meeting  of  1791  :  — 

"  Whereas,  some  men  may  be  found  among  us  so  far 
lost  to  every  sense  of  virtue  and  feeling  for  the  dis 
tresses  of  this  country  as  to  accept  offices  for  the  col 
lection  of  the  duty, 

"  Resolved,  therefore,  that  in  future  we  will  consider 
such  persons  as  unworthy  of  our  friendship  ;  have  no  in 
tercourse  or  dealings  with  them ;  withdraw  from  them 
every  assistance,  and  withhold  all  the  comforts  of  life 
which  depend  upon  those  duties  that  as  men  and  fel 
low-citizens  we  owe  to  each  other ;  and  upon  all  occa 
sions  treat  them  with  that  contempt  they  deserve  ;  and 
that  it  be,  and  it  is  hereby,  most  earnestly  recommended 
to  the  people  at  large,  to  follow  the  same  line  of  con 
duct  towards  them." 

If  such  an  excommunication  were  to  be  meted 
out  to  an  offending  neighbor,  what  measure  would 
the  excise  man  receive  if  he  came  from  abroad  on 
his  unwelcome  errand  ? 

These  resolutions  were  signed  by  Mr.  Gallatin 
as  clerk,  and  made  public  through  the  press.  Res* 


PENNSYLVANIA  LEGISLATURE,  55 

olutions  of  this  character,  if  not  criminal,  reach 
the  utmost  limit  of  indiscretion,  and  political  in 
discretion  is  quite  as  dangerous  as  crime.  The  ! 
petition  to  Congress,  subscribed  by  the  inhabit 
ants  of  western  Pennsylvania,  was  drawn  by  GaK 
latin  ;  while  explicit  in  terms,  it  was  moderate  in 
tone.  It  represented  the  unequal  operation  of  the 
act.  "A  duty  laid  on  the  common  drink  of  a  nation, 
instead  of  taxing  the  citizens  in  proportion  to  their 
property,  falls  as  heavy  on  the  poorest  class  as  on 
the  rich  ;  "  and  it  ingeniously  pointed  out  that  the 
distance  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  western  counties 
from  market  prevented  their  bringing  the  produce 
of  their  lands  to  sale,  either  in  grain  or  meal. 
"  We  are  therefore  distillers  through  necessity, 
not  choice  ;  that  we  may  comprehend  the  greatest 
value  in  the  smallest  size  and  weight." 

Hamilton,  indignant,  reported  the  proceedings 
to  the  President  on  September  9,  1792,  and  de 
manded  instant  punishment.  Washington,  who 
was  at  Mount  Vernon,  was  unwilling  to  go  to 
extremes,  but  consented  to  issue  a  proclamation, 
which,  drafted  by  Hamilton,  and  countersigned 
by  Jefferson,  was  published  September  15,  1792. 
It  earnestly  admonished  all  persons  to  desist  from 
unlawful  combinations  to  obstruct  the  operations  of 
the  laws,  and  charged  all  courts,  magistrates,  and 
officers  with  their  enforcement.  There  was  no 
mistaking  Hamilton's  intention  to  enforce  the 
law.  Prosecutions  in  the  Circuit  Court,  held  at 


56  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

Yorktown  in  October,  were  ordered  against  the 
Pittsburgh  offenders,  but  no  proof  could  be  had  to 
sustain  an  indictment. 

The  President's  proclamation  startled  the  west 
ern  people,  and  some  uneasiness  was  felt  as  to  how 
such  of  their  representatives  as  had  taken  part  in 
the  Pittsburgh  meeting  would  be  received  when 
they  should  go  up  to  the  Legislature  in  the  winter. 
Bradford  and  Smilie  accompanied  Gallatin  ;  Srnilie 
to  take  his  seat  in  the  state  Senate,  and  Bradford 
to  represent  Washington  County  in  the  House, 
where  he  "  cut  a  poor  figure."  Gallatin  despised 
him,  and  characterized  him  as  a  "  tenth-rate  law 
yer  and  an  empty  drum."  Gallatin  found,  how 
ever,  that  although  the  Pittsburgh  meeting  had 
hurt  the  general  interest  of  his  party  throughout 
the  State,  and  "  rather  defeated"  the  repeal  of  the 
excise  law,  his  eastern  friends  did  not  turn  the 
cold  shoulder  to  him.  He  said  to  every  one  whom 
he  knew  that  the  resolutions  were  perhaps  too 
violent  and  undoubtedly  highly  impolitic,  but, 
in  his  opinion,  contained  nothing  illegal.  Mean 
while  Federal  officers  proceeded  to  enforce  the 
law  in  Washington  County.  A  riot  ensued,  and 
the  office  was  forcibly  closed.  Bills  were  found 
against  two  of  the  offenders  in  the  federal  court, 
and  warrants  to  arrest  and  bring  them  to  Phila 
delphia  for  trial  were  issued.  Gallatin  believed 
the  men  innocent,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  advise 
Badollet  to  keep  them  out  of  the  way  when  the 


PENNSYLVANIA  LEGISLATURE.  57 

marshal  should  go  to  serve  the  writs,  but  depre 
cated  any  insult  to  the  officer.  He  thought  "  the 
precedent  a  very  dangerous  one  to  drag  people 
such  a  distance  in  order  to  be  tried  on  govern 
mental  prosecutions."  Here  the  matter  rested 
for  a  season. 

At  this  session  of  the  Legislature  Gallatin  in 
troduced  a  new  system  of  county  taxation,  pro 
posed  a  clause  providing  for  "  trustees  yearly 
elected,  one  to  each  township,  without  whose  con 
sent  no  tax  is  to  be  raised,  nor  any  above  one  per 
cent,  on  the  value  of  lands,"  which  he  hoped  would 
"tend  to  crush  the  aristocracy  of  every  town  in 
the  State."  Also  he  proposed  a  plan  to  establish 
a  school  and  library  in  each  county,  with  a  suffi 
cient  immediate  sum  in  money,  and  a  yearly  al 
lowance  for  a  teacher  in  the  English  language. 


CHAPTER  III. 

UNITED   STATES   SENATE. 

THE  death  of  the  grandfather  of  Mr.  Gallatin, 
and  soon  after  of  his  aunt,  strongly  tempted  him 
to  make  a  journey  to  Geneva  in  the  summer  of 
1793.  The  political  condition  of  Europe  at  that 
time  was  of  thrilling  interest.  On  January  21  the 
head  of  Louis  XVI.  fell  under  the  guillotine,  to 
which  Marie  Antoinette  soon  followed  him.  The 
armies  of  the  coalition  were  closing  in  upon  France. 
Of  the  political  necessity  for  these  state  executions 
there  has  always  been  and  will  always  be  different 
judgments.  That  of  Mr.  Gallatin  is  of  peculiar 
value.  It  is  found  expressed  in  intimate  frank 
ness  in  a  letter  to  his  friend  Badollet,  written  at 
Philadelphia,  February  1,  1794. 

"  France  at  present  offers  a  spectacle  unheard  of  at 
any  other  period.  Enthusiasm  there  produces  an  energy 
equally  terrible  and  sublime.  All  those  virtues  which  de 
pend  upon  social  or  family  affections,  all  those  amiable 
weaknesses,  which  our  natural  feelings  teach  us  to  love  or 
respect,  have  disappeared  before  the  stronger,  the  only, 
at  present,  powerful  passion,  the  Amor  Patrice.  I  must 
confess  my  soul  is  not  enough  steeled,  not  sometimes 
to  shrink  at  the  dreadful  executions  whicli  have  restored 


UNITED  STATES  SENATE.  59 

at  least  apparent  internal  tranquillity  to  that  republic. 
Yet  upon  the  whole,  as  long  as  the  combined  despots 
press  upon  every  frontier,  and  employ  every  engine  to 
destroy  and  distress  the  interior  parts,  I  think  they,  and 
they  alone,  are  answerable  for  every  act  of  severity  or 
injustice,  for  every  excess,  nay  for  every  crime,  which 
either  of  the  contending  parties  in  France  may  have 
committed." 

Within  a  few  years  the  publication  of  the  cor 
respondence  of  De  Fersen,  the  agent  of  the  King 
and  Queen,  has  supplied  the  proof  of  the  charge 
that  they  were  in  secret  correspondence  with  the 
allied  sovereigns  to  introduce  foreign  troops  upon 
the  soil  of  France,  —  a  crime  which  no  people  has 
ever  condoned. 

The  French  Revolution,  which  from  its  begin 
ning  in  1789  reacted  upon  the  United  States  with 
fully  the  force  that  the  American  Revolution  ex 
erted  upon  France,  had  become  an  important 
factor  in  American  politics.  The  intemperance 
of  Genet,  the  minister  of  the  French  Convention 
to  the  United  States  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
breaches  of  neutrality  by  England  on  the  other, 
were  dividing  the  American  people  into  English 
and  French  parties.  The  Federalists  sympathized 
with  the  English,  the  late  enemies,  and  the  Re 
publicans  with  the  French,  the  late  allies,  of  the 
United  States. 

Mr.  Gallatin  had  about  made  up  his  mind  to 
visit  Europe,  when  an  unexpected  political  honor 


60  ALBERT   GALL  AT  IN. 

changed  his  plans.  The  Pennsylvania  Legislature 
elected  him  a  senator  of  the  United  States  on  joint 
ballot,  a  distinction  the  more  singular  in  that  the 
Legislature  was  Federalist  and  Mr.  Gallatin  was  a 
representative  of  a  Republican  district,  and  strong 
in  that  faith.  Moreover,  he  was  not  a  candidate 
either  of  his  own  motion  or  by  that  of  his  friends, 
bat,  on  the  contrary,  had  doubts  as  to  his  eligibil 
ity  because  of  insufficient  residence.  This  objec 
tion,  which  he  himself  stated  in  caucus,  was  dis 
regarded,  and  on  February  28,  1793,  by  a  vote  of 
45  to  37,  he  was  chosen  senator.  Mr.  Gallatin 
had  just  completed  his  thirty-second  year,  and 
now  a  happy  marriage  came  opportunely  to  stim 
ulate  his  ambition  and  smooth  his  path  to  other 
honors. 

Among  the  friends  made  at  Philadelphia  was 
Alexander  J.  Dallas,  a  gentleman  two  years  Gal- 
latiri's  senior,  whose  career,  in  some  respects,  re 
sembled  his  own.  He  was  born  in  Jamaica,  of 
Scotch  parents ;  had  been  thoroughly  educated  at 
Edinburgh  and  Westminster,  and,  coming  to  the 
United  States  in  1783,  had  settled  in  Philadelphia, 
where  he  married  a  daughter  of  Governor  Mifflin. 
He  now  held  the  post  of  Secretary  of  State 
for  Pennsylvania.  Mr.  Gallatin's  constant  com 
mittee  service  brought  him  into  close  relations 
with  the  Secretary,  and  the  foundation  was  laid  of 
a  lasting  political  friendship  and  social  intimacy 
In  the  recess  of  the  Legislature,  Mr.  Gallatin 


UNITED  STATES  SENATE.  61 

joined  Mr.  Dallas  and  his  wife  in  an  excursion  to 
the  northward.  Mr.  Gallatin's  health  had  suffered 
from  close  confinement  and  too  strict  attention  to 
business,  and  he  needed  recreation  and  diversion. 
In  the  course  of  the  journey  the  party  was  joined 
by  some  ladies,  friends  of  Mrs.  Dallas,  among 
whom  was  Miss  Hannali  Nicholson.  The  excur 
sion  lasted  nearly  four  weeks.  The  result  was 
that  Mr.  Gallatin  returned  to  Philadelphia  the 
accepted  suitor  of  this  young  'lady.  He  describes 
her  in  a  letter  to  Badollet  as  "  a  girl  about 
twenty-five  years  old,  who  is  neither  handsome 
nor  rich,  but  sensible,  well-informed,  good-na 
tured,  and  belonging  to  a  respectable  and  very 
amiable  family."  Nor  was  he  mistaken  in  his 
choice,  —  a  more  charming  nature,  a  more  perfect, 
well-rounded  character  than  hers  is  rarely  found. 
They  were  married  on  November  11,  1793.  She 
was  his  faithful  companion  throughout  his  long 
and  honorable  career,  and  death  separated  them 
but  by  a  few  months.  This  alliance  greatly  wid 
ened  his  political  connection. 

Commodore  James  Nicholson,  his  wife's  father, 
famous  in  the  naval  annals  of  the  United  States 
as  the  captain  of  the  Trumbull,  the  first  of  Ameri 
can  frigates,  at  the  time  resided  in  New  York,  and 
was  one  of  the  acknowledged  leaders  of  the  Re 
publican  party  in  the  city.  His  two  brothers  — 
Samuel  and  John  —  were  captains  in  the  naval  ser 
vice.  His  two  elder  daughters  were  married  to  in- 


62  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

fluential  gentlemen  ;  —  Catharine  to  Colonel  Few, 
senator  from  Georgia;  Frances,  to  Joshua  Seney, 
member  of  Congress  from  Maryland  ;  Maria  later 
(1809)  married  John  Montgomery,  who  had  been 
member  of  Congress  from  Maryland,  and  was 
afterwards  mayor  of  Baltimore.  A  son,  James 
Witter  Nicholson,  then  a  youth  of  twenty-one, 
was,  in  1795,  associated  with  Mr.  Gallatin  in  his 
Western  Company,  and,  removing  to  Fayette, 
made  his  home  in  what  was  later  and  is  now  known 
as  New  Geneva.  Here,  in  connection  with  Mr. 
Gallatin  and  the  brothers  Kramer,  Germans,  he 
established  extensive  glass  works,  which  proved 
profitable. 

Mr.  Gallatin's  election  to  the  United  States 
Senate  did  not  disqualify  him  for  his  unfinished 
legislative  term,  and,  on  his  return  to  Philadelphia, 
he  was  again  plunged  in  his  manifold  duties.  The 
few  days  which  intervened  between  his  marriage 
and  the  meeting  of  Congress  —  a  short  honey 
moon —  were  spent  under  the  roof  of  Commodore 
.Nicholson  in  New  York. 

On  February  28,  1793,  the  Vice-President  laid 
before  the  Senate  a  certificate  from  the  Legisla 
ture  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania  to  the 
election  of  Albert  Gallatin  as  senator  of  the  United 
States.  Mr.  Gallatin  took  his  seat  December  2, 
1793.  The  business  of  the  session  was  opened  by 
the  presentation  of  a  petition  signed  by  nineteen 


UNITED  STATES  SENATE.  63 

individuals  of  Yorktown,  Pennsylvania,  stating 
that  Mr.  Gallatin  had  not  been  nine  years  a  citi 
zen  of  the  United  States,  This  petition  had  been 
handed  to  Robert  Morris,  Mr.  Gallatin's  col 
league  for  Pennsylvania,  by  a  member  of  the 
Legislature  for  the  county  of  York,  but  he  had 
declined  to  present  it,  and  declared  to  Mr.  Gal 
latin  his  intention  to  be  perfectly  neutral  on  the 
occasion  —  at  least  so  Mr.  Gallatin  wrote  to  his 
wife  the  next  day ;  but  Morris  did  not  hold  fast 
to  this  resolution,  as  the  votes  in  the  sequel 
show.  The  petition  was  ordered  to  lie  upon 
the  table.  On  December  11  Messrs.  Rutherford, 
Cabot,  Ellsworth,  Livermore,  and  Mitchell  were 
appointed  a  committee  to  consider  the  petition. 
These  gentlemen,  Gallatin  wrote,  were  undoubt 
edly,  uthe  worst  for  him  that  could  have  been 
chosen,  and  did  not  seem  to  him  to  be  favorably 
disposed."  He  himself  considered  the  legal  point 
involved  as  a  nice  and  difficult  one,  and  likely  to 
be  decided  by  a  party  vote.  The  fourth  article  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  first  Confederation  of  the 
United  States  reads  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  better  to  secure  and  perpetuate  mutual  friend 
ship  and  intercourse  among  the  people  of  the  different 
States  in  this  Union,  the  free  inhabitants  of  each  of 
these  States,  paupers,  vagabonds,  and  fugitives  from 
justice  excepted,  shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and 
immunities  of  free  citizens  in  the  several  States." 

Article  1,  section  3,  of  the  new  Constitution 
declares :  — 


64  ALBERT   GALLATIN 

"No  person  shall  be  a  senator  who  shall  not  have 
attained  to  the  age  of  thirty  years,  and  been  nine  years 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  who  shall  not,  when 
elected,  be  an  inhabitant  of  that  State  for  which  he 
shall  be  chosen." 

Mr.  Gallatin  landed  in  Massachusetts  in  July, 
1780,  while  still  a  minor.  His  residence,  there 
fore,  which  had  been  uninterrupted,  extended  over 
thirteen  years.  He  took  the  oath  of  citizenship 
and  allegiance  to  Virginia  in  October,  1785,  since 
which,  until  his  election  in  1793,  nine  years,  the 
period  called  for  by  the  United  States  Constitu 
tion,  had  not  elapsed.  On  the  one  hand,  his  actual 
residence  exceeded  the  required  period  of  citizen 
ship  ;  on  the  other,  his  legal  and  technical  resi 
dence  as  a  citizen  was  insufficient.  In  point  of 
fact,  his  intention  to  become  a  citizen  dated  from 
the  summer  of  1783. 

To  take  from  the  case  the  air  of  party  proscrip 
tion,  which  it  was  beginning  to  assume,  the  Senate 
discharged  its  special  committee,  and  raised  a 
general  committee  on  elections  to  consider  this  and 
other  cases.  On  February  10,  1794,  the  report  of 
this  committee  was  submitted,  and  a  day  was  set 
for  a  hearing  by  the  Senate,  with  open  doors.  On 
that  day  Mr.  Gallatin  exhibited  a  written  state 
ment  of  facts,  agreed  to  between  himself  and  the 
petitioners,  and  the  case  was  left  to  the  Senate  on 
its  merits.  On  the  28th  a  test  vote  was  taken  upon 
a  motion  to  the  effect  that  "  Albert  Gallatin,  re« 


UNITED  STATES  SENATE.          65 

turned  to  this  House  as  a  member  for  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania,  is  duly  qualified  for  and  elected  to  a 
seat  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  and  it  was 
decided  in  the  negative  —  yeas,  12  ;  nays,  14.1 

Motion  being  made  that  the  election  of  Albert 
Gallatin  to  be  a  senator  of  the  United  States  was 
void,  —  he  not  having  been  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States  for  the  term  of  years  required  as  a  qualifi 
cation  to  be  a  senator  of  the  United  States,  —  it 
was  further  moved  to  divide  the  question  at  the 
word  "  void  "  ;  and  the  question  being  then  taken 
on  the  first  paragraph,  it  passed  in  the  affirma 
tive—yeas,  14;  nays,  12.  The  yeas  and  nays 
were  required,  and  the  Senate  divided  as  before. 
The  resolution  was  then  put  and  adopted  by  the 
same  vote.  Thus  Mr.  Gallatin,  thirteen  years  a 
resident  of  the  country,  a  large  land-holder  in  Vir 
ginia,  and  for  several  terms  a  member  of  the  Penn 
sylvania  Legislature,  was  excluded  from  a  seat 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Gallatin  conducted  his  case  with  great  dig 
nity.  On  being  asked  whether  he  had  any  testi 
mony  to  produce,  he  replied,  in  writing,  that  there 
was  not  sufficient  matter  charged  in  the  petition 

i  The  yeas  and  nays  being  required  by  one  fifth  of  the  senators 
present,  there  were  :  Affirmative.  —  Bradley,  Brown,  Burr,  Butler, 
Edwards,  Gunn,  Jackson,  Langdon,  Martin,  Monroe,  Eobinson, 
Taylor;  12. 

Negative.  —  Bradford,  Cabot,  Ellsworth,  Foster,  Frelinghuysen, 
Hawkins,  Izard,  King,  Livermore,  Mitchell,  Morris,  Potts,  Strong 
Vining ;  14. 

5 


66  ALBERT  GALLATJN. 

and  proved  by  the  testimony  to  vacate  his  seat, 
and  declined  to  go  to  the  expense  of  collecting 
evidence  until  that  preliminary  question  was  set 
tled. 

Short  as  the  period  was  during  which  Mr. 
Gallatin  held  his  seat,  it  was  long  enough  for 
him  seriously  to  annoy  the  Federal  leaders.  In 
deed,  it  is  questionable  whether,  if  he  had  delayed 
his  embarrassing  motion,  a  majority  .of  the  Senate 
could  have  been  secured  against  him.  Certain  it  is 
that  the  Committee  on  Elections,  appointed  on  De 
cember  11,  did  not  send  in  its  report  until  the  day 
after  Mr.  Gallatin  moved  his  resolution,  calling 
upon  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  for  an  elabo 
rate  statement  of  the  debt  on  January  1,  1794,  un 
der  distinct  heads,  including  the  balances  to  cred 
itor  States,  a  statement  of  loans,  domestic  and 
foreign,  contracted  from  the  beginning  of  the 
government,  statements  of  exports  and  imports  ; 
finally  for  a  summary  statement  of  the  receipts 
and  expenditures  to  the  last  day  of  December, 

1790,  distinguishing   the    moneys   received    under 
each  branch   of  the  revenue  and  the  moneys  ex 
pended  under  each  of  the  appropriations,  and  stat 
ing  the  balances  of  each  branch  of  the  revenue  re 
maining  unexpended  on  that  day,  and  also  calling 
for  similar  and  separate  statements  for  the  years 

1791,  1792,  1793.     This  resolution,  introduced  on 
January  8,  was  laid   over.     On  the  20th   it  was 
adopted.     It  was  not  until  February  10  that  a  re- 


UNITED   STATES  SENATE.  67 

ply  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  was  re 
ceived  by  the  Senate,  and  on  the  llth  submitted 
to  Gallatin,  Ellsworth,  and  Taylor  for  corisider- 
tion  and  report.  In  this  letter  (February  6, 1794) 
Hamilton  stated  the  difficulty  of  supplying  the 
precise  information  called  for,  with  the  clerical 
forces  of  the  department,  the  interruption  it  would 
cause  in  the  daily  routine  of  the  service,  and  dep 
recated  the  practice  of  such  unexpected  demands. 

With  this  response  of  the  Secretary  the  inquiry 
fell  to  the  ground,  but  it  was  neither  forgotten 
nor  forgiven  by  his  adherents,  and  Mr.  Gallatin 
paid  the  penalty  on  at  least  one  occasion.  This 
was  years  later.  On  March  2,  1803,  the  day  be 
fore  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  Mr.  Griswold, 
Federalist  from  Connecticut,  attacked  the  correct 
ness  of  the  accounts  of  the  sinking  fund,  and  de 
manded  an  answer  to  a  resolution  of  the  House 
on  the  management  of  this  bureau.1  Had  such 
been  his  desire,  Mr.  Gallatin  was  foreclosed  from 
Hamilton's  excuse.  On  the  night  of  the  3d  he 
sent  in  an  elaborate  statement  which  set  accusa 
tion  at  rest  and  criticism  at  defiance. 

Mr.  Gallatin's  short  stay  in  the  Senate  revealed 
to  the  Federalists  the  character  of  the  man,  who, 
disdaining  the  lesser  flight,  checked  only  at  the 
highest  game.  He  accepted  his  exclusion  with 
perfect  philosophy.  Soon  after  the  session  opened 
he  said,  uMy  feelings  cannot  be  much  hurt  by  an 
1  Mr.  Gallatin  was  then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 


68  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

unfavorable  decision,  since  having  been  elected  is 
an  equal  proof  of  the  confidence  the  Legislature  of 
Pennsylvania  reposed  in  me,  and  not  being  quali 
fied,  if  it  is  so  decided,  cannot  be  imputed  to  me 
as  a  fault."  His  exclusion  was  by  no  means  a  dis 
advantage  to  him.  It  made  common  cause  of  the 
honor  of  Pennsylvania  and  his  own ;  it  endeared 
him  to  the  Republicans  of  his  State  as  a  martyr 
to  their  principles.  It  "secured  him,"  to  use  his 
own  words,  "  many  staunch  "  friends  throughout 
the  Union,  and  extended  his  reputation,  hitherto 
local  and  confined,  over  the  entire  land ;  more  than 
all,  it  led  him  to  the  true  field  of  political  contest 
—  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  people  of 
the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  WHISKEY  INSURRECTION. 

MR.  GALLATIN  was  now  out  of  public  life.  For 
eighteen  months  since  he  came  up  to  the  Legisla 
ture  with  his  friends  of  the  Pittsburgh  convention, 
he  had  not  returned  to  Fayette.  His  private  con 
cerns  were  suffering  in  his  absence.  Neither  his 
barn,  his  meadow,  nor  his  house  was  finished  at 
the  close  of  1793.  In  May,  1794,  he  took  his  wife 
to  his  country  home.  Their  hopes  of  a  summer 
of  recreation  and  domestic  comfort  in  the  wild 
beauties  of  the  Monongahela  were  not  to  be  real 
ized.  Before  the  end  of  June  the  peaceful  country 
was  in  a  state  of  mad  agitation. 

The  seeds  of  political  discontent,  sown  at  Pitts 
burgh  in  1792,  had  ripened  to  an  abundant  har 
vest.  An  act  passed  by  Congress  June  5,  1794, 
giving  to  the  state  courts  concurrent  jurisdiction 
in  excise  cases,  removed  the  grievance  of  which 
Gallatin  complained,  the  dragging  of  accused  per 
sons  to  Philadelphia  for  trial,  but  was  not  con 
strued  to  be  retroactive  in  its  operation.  The 
marshal,  accordingly,  found  it  to  be  his  duty  to 
serve  the  writs  of  May  31  against  those  who  had 


70  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

fallen  under  their  penalties.  These  writs  were 
returnable  in  Philadelphia.  They  were  served 
without  trouble  in  Fayette  County.  Not  so  in 
Allegheny.  Here  on  July  15,  1794,  the  marshal 
had  completed  his  service,  when,  while  still  in  the 
execution  of  his  office,  and  in  company  with  the 
inspector,  he  was  followed  and  fired  upon.  The 
next  day  a  body  of  men  went  to  the  house  of  the 
marshal  and  demanded  that  he  should  deliver  up 
his  commission.  They  were  fired  upon  and  dis 
persed,  six  were  wounded,  and  the  leader  killed. 
A  general  rising  followed.  The  marshal's  house, 
though  defended  by  Major  Kirkpatrick,  with  a 
squad  from  the  Pittsburgh  garrison,  was  set  on 
fire,  with  the  adjacent  buildings,  and  burned. 
On  July  18  the  insurgents  sent  a  deputation  of 
two  or  three  to  Pittsburgh,  to  require  of  the  mar 
shal  a  surrender  of  the  processes  in  his  possession, 
and  of  the  inspector  the  resignation  of  his  office. 
These  demands  were,  of  course,  rejected  ;  but  the 
officers,  alarmed  for  their  personal  safety,  left  the 
town,  and,  descending  the  Ohio  by  boat  to  Ma 
rietta,  proceeded  by  a  circuitous  route  to  Philadel 
phia,  and  made  their  report  to  the  United  States 
authorities. 

This  was  the  outbreak  of  the  Western  or  Whis 
key  Insurrection.  The  excitement  spread  rapidly 
through  the  western  counties.  Fayette  County 
was  not  exempt  from  it.  The  collector's  house 
was  broken  into,  and  his  commission  taken  from 


THE    WHISKEY  INSURRECTION.  71 

Mm  by  armed  men ;  the  sheriff  refused  to  serve 
the  writs  against  the  rioters  of  the  spring.  Since 
these  disturbances  there  had  been  no  trouble 
in  this  county.  But  the  malcontents  elsewhere 
rose  in  arms,  riots  ensued,  and  the  safety  of  the 
whole  community  was  compromised.  The  news 
reaching  Fayette,  the  distillers  held  a  meeting  at 
Uniontown,  the  county  seat,  on  July  20.  Both 
Gallatin.and  Smilie  were  present,  and  by  their 
advice  it  was  agreed  to  submit  to  the  laws.  The 
neighboring  counties  were  less  fortunate.  On 
July  21  the  Washington  County  committee  was 
summoned  to  meet  at  Mingo  Creek  Meeting-house. 
On  the  23d  there  was  a  large  assemblage  of  peo 
ple,  including  a  number  of  those  who  had  been 
concerned  in  burning  the  house  of  the  Pittsburgh 
inspector.  James  Marshall,  the  same  who  opposed 
the  ratification  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  David 
Bradford,  the  "  empty  drum,"  and  Judge  Brack- 
enridge  of  Pittsburgh,  attended  this  meeting. 
Bradford,  the  most  unscrupulous  of  the  leaders, 
sought  to  shirk  his  responsibility,  but  was  intim 
idated  by  threats,  and  thereafter  did  not  dare  to 
turn  back.  Brackenridge  was  present  to  counsel 
the  insurgents  to  moderation.  In  spite  of  his  ef 
forts  the  meeting  ended  in  an  invitation,  which 
the  officers  had  not  the  boldness  to  sign,  to  the 
townships  of  the  four  western  counties  of  Penn 
sylvania  and  the  adjoining  counties  of  Virginia  to 
Bend  representatives  to  a  general  meeting  on  Au- 


72  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

gust  14,  at  Parkinson's  Ferry  on  the  Monongahela, 
in  Washington  County.  Bradford,  determined  to 
aggravate  the  disturbance,  stopped  the  mail  at 
Greensburg,  on  the  road  between  Pittsburgh  and 
Philadelphia,  and  robbed  it  of  the  Washington 
and  Pittsburgh  letters,  some  of  which  he  pub 
lished,  to  the  alarm  of  their  authors. 

On  July  28  a  circular  signed  by  Bradford,  Mar- 
hall,  and  others  was  sent  out  from  Cannonsburg 
to  the  militia  of  the  county,  whom  it  summoned 
for  personal  service,  and  likewise  called  for  vol 
unteers  to  rendezvous  the  following  Wednesday, 
July  30,  at  their  respective  places  of  meeting, 
thence  to  march  to  Brad  dock's  Field,  on  the 
Monongahela,  the  usual  rendezvous  of  the  militia, 
about  eight  miles  south  of  Pittsburgh,  by  two 
o'clock  of  Friday,  August  1.  It  closed  in  these 
words,  "  Here  is  an  expedition  proposed  in  which 
you  will  have  an  opportunity  for  displaying  your 
military  talents  and  of  rendering  service  to  your 
country."  Nothing  less  was  contemplated  by  the 
more  extreme  of  these  men  than  an  attack  upon 
Fort  Pitt  and  the  sack  of  Pittsburgh.  Thoroughly 
aroused  at  last,  the  moderate  men  of  Washington 
determined  to  breast  the  storm.  A  meeting  was 
held ;  James  Ross  of  the  United  States  Senate 
made  an  earnest  appeal,  and  was  supported  by 
Scott  of  the  House  of  Representatives  and  Stoke- 
ly  of  the  Senate  of  Pennsylvania.  Marshall  and 
Bradford  yielded,  and  consented  to  countermand 


THE    WHISKEY  INSURRECTION.  73 

the  order  of  rendezvous.  But  the  excited  popula 
tion  poured  into  the  town  from  all  quarters,  and 
Bradford,  who  found  that  he  had  gone  too  far  to 
retreat,  again  took  the  lead  of  the  movement,  al 
ready  beyond  restraint. 

There  are  accounts  of  this  formidable  insurrec 
tion  by  H.  H.  Brackenridge  and  William  Findley, 
eye-witnesses.  These  supply  abundant  details. 
Findley  says  that  he  knew  that  the  movement 
would  not  stop  at  the  limit  apparently  set  for  it. 
44  The  opposing  one  law  would  lead  to  oppose  an 
other  ;  they  would  finally  oppose  all,  and  demand 
a  new  modelling  of  the  Constitution,  and  there 
would  be  a  revolution."  There  was  great  alarm 
in  Pittsburgh.  A  meeting  was  held  there  Thurs 
day  evening,  July  31,  at  which  a  message  from 
the  Washington  County  insurgents  was  read,  vio 
lent  resolutions  adopted,  and  the  9th  of  August 
appointed  as  the  day  for  a  town  meeting  for  elec 
tion  of  delegates  to  a  general  convention  of  the 
counties  at  Parkinson's  Ferry ;  Judge  Bracken- 
ridge  of  Pittsburgh,  a  man  of  education,  influence, 
and  infinite  jest  and  humor,  was  present  at  this 
meeting.  Of  Scotch-Irish  birth  himself,  his  sym 
pathies  of  race  were  with  his  countrymen,  but  in 
political  sentiments  he  was  not  in  harmony  with 
their  leaders.  They  were  nearly  all  Republicans, 
while  he  had  sided  with  the  Federalists  in  the 
convention  which  adopted  the  new  Constitution 
of  the  United  States.  He  was  a  man  of  peace, 


74  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

and  of  too  much  sagacity  not  to  foresee  the  inev 
itable  ruin  upon  which  they  were  rushing.  At 
Mingo  Creek  he  had  thwarted  the  plans  of  imme 
diate  revolution.  The  evident  policy  of  moderate 
men  was  to  prevent  any  violence  before  the  con 
vention  at  Parkinson's  Ferry  should  meet,  and  to 
bend  all  their  energies  to  control  the  deliberations 
of  that  body.  The  people  of  Pittsburgh  were  in 
tensely  excited  by  the  armed  gathering  almost  at 
their  doors. 

Brackenridge  felt  that  the  only  safe  issue  from 
the  situation  was  to  take  part  in  and  shape  the  ac 
tion  of  that  gathering.  Under  his  lead  a  commit 
tee  from  the  Pittsburgh  meeting,  followed  by  a 
large  body  of  the  citizens,  went  out  to  the  ren 
dezvous.  Here  they  found  a  motley  assemblage, 
arrayed  in  the  picturesque  campaign  costume 
which  the  mountaineers  wore  when  they  equipped 
themselves  to  meet  the  Indians,  —  yellow  hunting- 
shirts,  handkerchiefs  tied  about  their  heads,  and 
rifles  on  the  shoulder;  the  militia  were  on  foot, 
and  the  light  horse  of  the  counties  were  in  military 
dress.  Conspicuous  about  the  field,  a  haughty  and 
pompous,"  as  Gallatin  described  him  in  the  Legis 
lature,  was  David  Bradford,  who  had  assumed  the 
office  of  major-general.  Brackenridge  draws  a  life 
like  picture  of  him  as,  mounted  on  a  superb  horse 
in  splendid  trappings,  arrayed  in  full  uniform,  with 
plume  floating  in  the  air  and  sword  drawn,  he 
rode  over  the  ground,  gave  orders  to  the  military, 


THE    WHISKEY  INSURRECTION.  75 

and  harangued  the  multitude.  On  the  historic 
ground  where  Washington  plucked  his  first  mili 
tary  laurels  were  gathered  about  seven  thousand 
men,  of  whom  two  thousand  militia  were  armed 
and  accoutred  as  for  a  campaign,  —  a  formidable 
and  remarkable  assemblage,  when  it  is  considered 
that  the  entire  male  population  of  sixteen  years 
of  age  and  upwards  of  the  four  counties  did  not 
exceed  sixteen  thousand,  and  was  scattered  over 
a  wide  and  unsettled  country.  This  is  Brack- 
enridge's  estimate  of  the  numbers.  Later,  Gal- 
latin,  on  comparison  of  the  best  attainable  infor 
mation,  estimated  the  whole  body  at  from  fifteen 
hundred  to  two  thousand  men.  Whatever  vio 
lence  Bradford  may  have  intended,  none  was  ac 
complished.  That  he  read  aloud  the  Pittsburgh 
letters,  taken  from  the  mail,  shows  his  purpose  to 
inflame  the  people  to  vindictive  violence.  He  was 
accused  by  contemporary  authorities  of  imitation 
of  the  methods  of  the  French  Jacobins,  which 
were  fresh  examples  of  revolutionary  vigor.  But 
the  mass  was  not  persuaded.  After  desultory  con 
versation  and  discussion,  the  angry  turn  of  which 
was  at  times  threatening  to  the  moderate  leaders, 
the  meeting  broke  up  on  August  2 ;  about  one 
third  dispersed  for  their  homes,  and  the  remain 
der,  marching  to  Pittsburgh,  paraded  through  the 
streets,  and  finally  crossing  the  river  in  their  turn 
scattered.  They  did  no  damage  to  the  town  be 
yond  the  burning  of  a  farm  belonging  to  Major 


76  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

Kirkpatrick  of  the  garrison.  The  taverns  were 
all  closed,  but  the  citizens  brought  whiskey  to 
their  doors.  Judge  Brackenridge  reports  that  his 
sacrifice  to  peace  on  this  occasion  cost  him  four 
barrels  of  his  best  old  rye. 

This  moderation  was  no  augury  of  permanent 
quiet.  Brackenridge,  who  was  a  keen  observer  of 
men,  says  of  the  temper  of  the  western  population 
at  this  period :  "  I  had  seen  the  spirit  which  pre 
vailed  at  the  Stamp  Act,  and  at  the  commence 
ment  of  the  revolution  from  the  government  of 
Great  Britain,  but  it  was  by  no  means  so  general 
and  so  vigorous  amongst  the  common  people  as 
the  spirit  which  now  existed  in  the  country."  Nor 
did  the  armed  bands  all  return  peaceably  to  their 
homes.  The  house  of  the  collector  for  Fayette 
and  Washington  counties  was  burned,  and  warn 
ings  were  given  to  those  who  were  disposed  to 
submit  to  the  law.  The  disaffected  were  called 
"  Tom  the  tinker  "  men,  from  the  signature  affixed 
to  the  threatening  notices.  From  a  passage  in 
one  of  Gallatin's  letters  it  appears  that  there  was 
a  person  of  that  name,  a  New  England  man,  who 
had  been  concerned  in  Shays's  insurrection.  Lib 
erty  poles,  with  the  device,  "An  equal  tax  and 
no  excise  law,"  were  raised,  and  the  trees  pla 
carded  with  the  old  revolutionary  motto,  "  United 
we  stand,  divided  we  fall,"  with  a  divided  snake 
as  an  emblem.  Mr.  Gallatin's  neighborhood  was 
not  represented  at  Braddock's  Field,  and  not  more 


THE   WHISKEY  INSURRECTION.  77 

fchan  a  dozen  were  present  from  the  entire  county. 
But  now  the  flame  spread  there  also,  and  liberty 
poles  were  raised.  Mr.  Gallatin  himself,  inquir 
ing  as  to  their  significance  and  expressing  to  the 
men  engaged  the  hope  that  they  would  not  behave 
like  a  mob,  was  asked,  in  return,  if  he  was  not 
aware  of  the  Westmoreland  resolution  that  any 
one  calling  the  people  a  mob  should  be  tarred  and 
feathered,  —  an  amusing  example  of  that  mob  logic 
which  proves  the  affirmative  of  the  proposition  it 
denies. 

Mr.  Gallatin  did  not  attend  the  meeting  at  Brad- 
dock's  Field.  Somewhat  isolated  at  his  residence 
at  the  southerly  border  of  the  county,  engaged  in 
the  care  of  his  long  neglected  farm,  and  in  the  full 
enjoyment  of  release  from  the  bustle  and  excite 
ment  of  public  life,  he  had  paid  little  attention  to 
passing  events.  He  was  preparing  definitively  to 
abandon  political  pursuits  and  to  follow  some  kind 
of  mercantile  business,  or  take  up  some  land  spec 
ulation  and  study  law  in  his  intervals  of  leisure. 
It  was  not  a  year  since  he  had  given  hostages  to 
fortune.  He  was  now  in  the  full  tide  of  domestic 
happiness,  which  was  always  to  him  the  dearest 
and  most  coveted.  He  might  well  have  hesitated 
before  again  engaging  upon  the,  dangerous  and 
uncertain  task  of  controlling  an  excited  and  ag 
grieved  population.  But  he  did  not  hesitate. 

The  people  among  whom  he  had  made  his  home, 
and  whose  confidence  had  never  failed  him,  were 


78  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

his  people.  By  them  he  would  stand  in  their  ex 
tremity,  and  if  hurt  or  ruin  befell  them,  it  should 
not  be  for  want  of  the  interposition  of  his  counsel. 
He  knew  his  powers,  and  he  determined  to  bring 
them  into  full  play.  He  knew  the  danger  also, 
but  it  only  nerved  him  to  confront  and  master  it. 
He  knew  his  duty,  and  did  not  swerve  one  hair 
from  the  line  it  prompted.  In  no  part  of  his  long, 
varied,  and  useful  political  life  does  he  appear  to 
better  advantage  than  in  this  exciting  episode  of 
the  Whiskey  Insurrection.  His  self-possession,  his 
cool  judgment,  swayed  neither  by  timidity  nor 
rashness,  never  for  a  moment  failed  him.  Here 
he  displayed  that  remarkable  combination  of  per 
suasion  and  control,  —  the  indispensable  equip 
ment  of  a  political  chief, — ^which,  in  later  days, 
gave  him  the  leadership  of  the  Republican  party. 
With  intuitive  perception  of  the  political  situation 
he  saw  that  the  only  path  to  safety,  beset  with  dif 
ficulty  and  danger  though  it  were,  was  through  the 
convention  at  Parkinson's  Ferry.  He  did  not  be 
lieve  that  any  revolutionary  proceedings  had  yet 
been  taken,  or  that  the  convention  was  an  ille 
gal  body,  but  he  was  determined  to  separate  the 
wheat  from  the  chaff,  and_disengage  the  moderate 
and  the  law-abiding  from  the  disorderly.  By 
the  light  of  his  own  experience  he  had  learned 
wisdom.  He  also  had  drawn  a  lesson  from  the 
French  Revolution,  and  knew  the  uncontrollable 
nature  of  large  popular  assemblages.  The  news 


THE    WHISKEY  INSURRECTION.  79 

from  Philadelphia,  the  seat  of  government,  was 
of  a  kind  to  increase  his  alarm.  Washington  was 
not  the  man  to  overlook  such  an  insult  to  author 
ity  as  the  resistance  to  the  marshal  and  inspector ; 
nor  was  it  probable  that  Hamilton  would  let  pass 
such  an  occasion  for  showing  the  strength  and 
vigor  of  the  government. 

Before  the  meeting  at  Braddock's  Field,  the 
Secretary's  plans  for  a  suppression  of  the  insur 
rection  were  matured.  On  August  2  he  laid  be 
fore  the  President  an  estimate  of  the  probable 
armed  force  of  the  insurgents,  and  of  that  with 
which  he  proposed  to  reduce  them  to  submission. 
When  the  question  of  the  use  of  force  came  be 
fore  the  cabinet,  Edmund  Randolph,  who  was  Sec 
retary  of  State,  opposed  it  in  a  written  opinion, 
one  phrase  of  which  deserves  repetition  :  — 

"  It  is  a  fact  well  known  that  the  parties  in  the  United 
States  are  highly  inflamed  against  each  other,  and  that 
there  is  but  one  character  which  keeps  both  in  awe.  As 
soon  as  the  sword  shall  be  drawn,  who  shall  be  able  to 
retain  them." 

Mifflin,  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  depre 
cated  immediate  resort  to  force ;  the  venerable 
Chief  Justice  McKean  suggested  the  sending  of 
commissioners  on  the  part  of  the  federal  and 
state  governments.  Washington,  with  perfect 
judgment,  combined  these  plans,  and  happily  al 
lied  conciliation  with  force.  A  proclamation 


80  ALBERT  GAL  LATIN. 

was  issued  on  August  7  summoning  all  persons 
involved  in  the  disturbance  to  lay  down  their 
arms  and  repair  to  their  homes  by  September  1. 
Requisitions  were  made  upon  the  Governors  of 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  New  Jersey 
for  fifteen  thousand  men  in  all,  and  a  joint  com 
mission  of  five  was  raised, — three  of  whom  on 
the  part  of  the  United  States  were  appointed  by 
the  President,  and  two  on  the  part  of  the  State 
of  Pennsylvania.  This  news  was  soon  known 
at  Pittsburgh,  and  rapidly  spread  through  the  ad 
jacent  country ;  and  it  was  clear  that  in  the  pro 
ceedings  to  be  taken  at  Parkinson's  Ferry  the 
question  of  resistance  or  submission  must  be  de 
finitively  settled.  On  August  14,  1794,  the  con 
vention  assembled  ;  two  hundred  and  twenty-six 
delegates  in  all,  of  whom  ninety-three  were  from 
Washington,  forty-nine  from  Westmoreland,  forty- 
three  from  Allegheny,  thirty-three  from  Fayette, 
two  from  Bedford,  five  from  Ohio  County  in  Vir 
ginia,  with  spectators  to  about  the  same  number. 
Parkinson's  Ferry,  later  called  Williamsport,  and 
now  Monongahela  City,  is  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Monongahela,  about  half-way  between  Pittsburgh 
and  Red  Stone  Old  Fort  or  Brownsville.  Brack 
en  ridge  pictures  the  scene  with  his  usual  local 
color :  "  Oar  hall  was  a  grove,  and  we  might  well 
be  called  '  the  Mountain '  (an  allusion  to  the  radical 
left  of  the  French  Convention),  for  we  were  on  a 
very  lofty  ground  overlooking  the  river.  We  had 


THE    WHISKEY  INSURRECTION.  81 

a  gallery  of  lying  timber  and  stumps,  and  there 
were  more  people  collected  there  than  there  was 
of  the  committee." 

In  full  view  of  the  meeting  stood  a  liberty  pole, 
raised  in  the  morning  by  the  men  who  signed  the 
Braddock's  Field  circular  order,  and  it  bore  the 
significant  motto,  "  Liberty  and  no  excise  and  no 
asylum  for  cowards."    Among  the  delegates,  or  the 
committee,  to  use  their  own  term^were  Bradford, 
Marshall,    Brackenridge,    Findley,    and    Gallatin. 
Before  the  meeting  was  organized,  Marshall  came 
to  Gallatin  and  showed  him  the  resolutions  which 
he  intended  to  move,  intimating  at  the  same  time 
that  he  wished   Mr.  Gallatin  to  act  as  secretary* 
Mr.  Gallatin  told  him  that  he  highly  disapproved 
the  resolutions,  and  had  come  to  oppose  both  him 
and  Bradford,  and  therefore  did  not  wish  to  serve. 
Marshall  seemed  to  waver  ;  but  soon  the  people 
met,  and  Edward  Cook  of  Fayette,  who  had  pre 
sided  at  Braddock's  Field,  was  chosen  chairman, 
with  Gallatin  for  secretary.     Bradford  opened  the 
proceedings  with  a  summary  sketch  of  the  action 
previously  taken,  declared  the  purpose  of  the  com 
mittee  to  be  to  determine  on  a  course  of  action, 
and  his  own  views  to  be  the  appointment  of  com 
mittees  to  raise  money,  purchase  arms,  enlist  vol 
unteers,  or  draft  the  militia:   in  a  word,  though 
he  did  not  use  it,  to  levy  war. 

At  this  point  in  the  proceedings  the  arrival  of 
the   commissioners   from   the   President   was  an- 


82  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

nounced,  but  the  progress  of  the  meeting  was  not 
interrupted.  The  commissioners  were  at  a  house 
near  the  meeting,  but  there  were  serious  objeo 
tions  against  holding  a  conference  at  this  place. 

Marshall  then  moved  his  resolutions.  The  first, 
declaratory  of  the  grievance  of  carrying  citizens 
great  distances  for  trial,  was  unanimously  agreed 
to.  The  second  called  for  a  committee  of  public 
safety  "  to  call  forth  the  resources  of  the  western 
country  to  repel  any  hostile  attempts  that  may  be 
made  against  the  rights  of  the  citizens,  or  of  the 
body  of  the  people."  Had  this  resolution  been 
adopted,  the  people  were  definitively  committed 
to  overt  rebellion.  This  brought  Mr.  Gallatin  at 
once  to  his  feet.  He  denied  that  any  hostile  at 
tempts  against  the  rights  of  the  people  were 
threatened,  and  drew  an  adroit  distinction  be 
tween  the  regular  army,  which  had  not  been 
called  out,  and  the  militia,  who  were  a  part  of 
the  people  themselves ;  and  to  gain  time  he  moved 
a  reference  of  the  resolutions  to  a  committee  who 
should  be  instructed  to  wait  the  action  of  the  gov 
ernment.  In  the  course  of  his  speech  Gallatin 
denied  the  assertion  that  resistance  to  the  excise 
law  was  legal,  or  that  coercion  by  the  government 
was  necessarily  hostile.  He  was  neither  supported 
by  his  own  friends  nor  opposed  by  those  of  Brad 
ford.  He  stood  alone. 

But  Marshall  withdrew  his  resolution,  and  a  com 
mittee  of  sixty  was  appointed,  with  power  to  sum- 


THE   WHISKEY  INSURRECTION.  83 

mon  the  people.  The  only  other  objectionable 
resolution  was  that  which  pledged  the  people  to 
the  support  of  the  laws,  except  the  excise  law, 
and  the  taking  of  citizens  out  of  their  counties 
for  trial,  —  an  exception  which  Gallatin  succeeded 
in  having  stricken  out.  He  then  urged  the  adop 
tion  of  the  resolution,  without  the  exception,  as 
necessary  "  to  the  establishment  of  the  laws  and 
the  conservation  of  the  peace,"  and  here  he  was 
supported  by  Brackenridge.  The  entire  resolu 
tions  were  finally  referred  to  a  committee  of  four, 
—  Gallatin,  Bradford,  Husbands,  and  Bracken- 
ridge.  The  meeting  then  adjourned.  The  next 
morning  a  standing  committee  of  sixty  was  cho 
sen,  one  from  each  township.  From  these  a  com 
mittee  of  twelve  was  selected  to  confer  with  the 
commissioners  of  the  government.  Upon  this 
committee  were  Cook,  the  chairman,  Bradford, 
Marshall,  Gallatin,  Brackenridge,  and  Edgar. 
The  meeting  then  adjourned. 

Upon  this  representative  body  there  seems  to 
have  been  no  outside  pressure.  The  proclamation 
of  the  President,  which  arrived  while  it  was  in  ses 
sion,  showed  the  determination,  while  the  appoint 
ment  of  the  commission  showed  the  moderation,  of 
the  government.  Gallatin  availed  of  each  circum 
stance  with  consummate  adroitness,  pointing  out 
to  the  desperate  the  folly  of  resistance,  and  to 
the  moderate  an  issue  for  honorable  retreat. 

Meanwhile,  the    commissioners    reached    Pitts- 


84  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

burgh,  where  on  August  20  the  committee  of  con 
ference  was  received  by  them,  and  an  informal 
understanding  arrived  at,  which  was  put  in  writ 
ing.  The  laws  were  to  be  enforced  with  as  little 
inconvenience  to  the  people  as  possible.  All 
criminal  suits  for  indictable  offences  were  to  be 
dropped,  but  civil  suits  were  to  take  their  course. 
Notice  was  given  that  a  definitive  submission  must 
be  made  by  September  1  following.  On  the  22d 
the  conference  committee  answered  that  they  must 
consult  with  the  committee  of  sixty.  Thursday 
the  28th  was  appointed  for  a  meeting  at  Red 
Stone  Old  Fort,  the  very  spot  where  the  original 
resolutions  of  opposition  were  passed  in  1791. 
In  the  report  drawn  up  every  member  of  the 
twelve,  except  Bradford,  favored  submission. 

The  hour  was  critical,  the  deliberations  were 
in  the  open  air,  and  under  the  eyes  of  a  threaten 
ing  party  of  seventy  riflemen  accidentally  pres 
ent  from  Washington  County  across  the  stream. 
Bradford,  who  instinctively  felt  that  he  had  placed 
himself  beyond  the  pale  of  pardon,  and  to  whom 
there  was  no  alternative  to  revolution  but  flight, 
pressed  an  instant  decision  and  rejection  of  the 
written  terms  of  the  commissioners.  In  the  pres 
ence  of  personal  danger,  the  conferees  only  dared 
to  move  that  part  of  their  report  which  advised 
acceptance  of  the  proffered  terms.  The  question 
of  submission  they  left  untouched.  An  adjourn 
ment  was  obtained.  The  next  day,  to  quote 


THE   WHISKEY  INSURRECTION.  85 


the  words  of  Brackenridge,  "  the  committee  hav 
ing  convened,  Gallatin  addressed  the  chair  in  a 
speech  of  some  hours.  It  was  a  piece  of  perfect 
eloquence,  and  was  heard  with  attention  and  with 
out  disturbance."  Never  was  there  a  more  strik-  »• 
ing  instance  of  intellectual  control  over  a  popular 
assemblage.  He  saved  the  western  counties  of 
Pennsylvania  from  anarchy  and  civil  war.  He 
was  followed  by  Brackenridge,  who,  warned  by 
the  example  of  his  companion,  or  encouraged  by 
the  quiet  of  the  assemblage,  supported  him  with 
vigor.  Bradford,  on  the  other  hand,  faced  the 
issue  with  directness  and  savage  vehemence.  He 
repelled  the  idea  of  submission,  and  insisted  upon 
an  independent  government  and  a  declaration  of 
war.  Edgar  of  Washington  rejoined  in  support 
of  the  report.  Gallatin  now  demanded  a  vote, 
but  the  twelve  conferees  alone  supported  him. 
He  then  proposed  an  informal  vote,  but  without 
result.  Finally  a  secret  ballot  was  proposed  by  a 
member.  A  hat  was  passed,  and  when  the  slips  of 
paper  were  taken  out,  there  were  thirty-four  yeas 
and  twenty-three  nays.  The  report  was  declared 
to  be  adopted,  and  amid  the  scowls  of  the  armed 
witnesses  the  meeting  adjourned  ;  not,  however, 
before  a  new  committee  of  conference  had  been 
appointed.  On  this  new  committee  not  one  of 
the  old  leaders  was  named.  They  evidently  knew 
the  folly  of  further  delay,  or  of  attempting  to  se 
cure  better  terms.  As  his  final  act  Colonel  Cook, 


86  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

the  chairman  of  the  standing  committee  of  sixty, 
indorsed  the  resolution  adopted.  It  declared  it  to 
be  "to  the  interest  of  the  people  of  the  country 
to  accede  to  the  proposals  made  by  the  commis 
sioners  on  the  part  of  the  United  States."  This 
was  duly  forwarded,  with  request  for  a  further 
conference.  The  commissioners  consented,  but 
declined  to  postpone  the  time  of  taking  the  sense 
of  the  people  beyond  September  11. 

William  Findley  said  of  the  famous  and  crit 
ical  debate  at  Red  Stone:  "I  had  never  heard 
speeches  that  I  more  ardently  desired  to  see  in 
print  than  those  delivered  on  this  occasion.  They 
would  not  only  be  valuable  on  account  of  the  ora 
tory  and  information  displayed  in  all  the  three, 
and  especially  in  Gallatin's,  who  opened  the  way, 
but  they  would  also  have  been  the  best  history  of 
the  spirit  and  the  mistakes  which  then  actuated 
men's  minds."  Findley,  in  his  allotment  of  the 
honors  of  the  day,  considers  that  "  the  verbal 
alterations  made  by  Gallatin  saved  the  question." 
Brackenridge  thought  that  his  own  seeming  to 
coincide  with  Bradford  prevented  the  declaration 
of  war ;  and  he  has  been  credited  with  having 
saved  the  western  counties  from  the  horrors  of 
civil  war,  Pittsburgh  from  destruction,  and  the 
Federal  Union  from  imminent  danger. 

Historians  have  agreed  in  according  to  Gallatin 
the  honor  of  this  field  day.  It  was  left  to  John 
C.  Hamilton,  half  a  century  later,  to  charge  a 


THE   WHISKEY  INSURRECTION.  87 

want  of  courage  upon  Gallatin,  —  a  charge  made 
against  proof  and  against  knowledge.1  Not  Males- 
herbes,  the  noble  advocate  defending  the  accused 
monarch  before  the  angry  French  Convention, 
with  the  certainty  of  the  guillotine  as  the  reward 
of  his  generosity,  is  more  worthy  of  admiration 
than  Gallatin  boldly  pleading  the  cause  of  order 
within  rifle  range  of  an  excited  band  of  lawless 
frontiersmen.  If,  as  he  confessed  later,  in  his 
part  in  the  Pittsburgh  resolutions  he  was  guilty 
of  "  a  political  sin,"  he  nobly  atoned  for  it  under 
circumstances  that  would  have  tried  the  courage 
of  men  bred  to  danger  and  to  arms.  Sin  it  was, 
and  its  consequences  were  not  yet  summed  up. 
For  although  the  back  of  the  insurrection  was 
broken  at  Red  Stone  Old  Fort,  there  was  much 
yet  to  be  done  before  submission  could  be  com 
pleted. 

Bradford  attempted  to  sign,  but  found  that  his 
course  at  Red  Stone  Old  Fort  had  placed  him  out 
side  the  amnesty.  Well  might  the  moderate  men 
say  in  their  familiar  manner  of  Scripture  allusion, 
"  Dagon  is  fallen."  He  fled  down  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi  to  Louisiana,  then  foreign  soil.  The 
commissioners  waited  at  Pittsburgh  for  the  sig 
natures  of  adhesion  on  September  10,  which  was 
the  last  day  allowed  by  the  terms  of  amnesty 
They  required  that  meetings  should  be  held  on 
this  day  in  the  several  townships,  the  presiding 
1  Hamilton's  History  of  the  Republic,  vi.  96. 


88  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

officers  to  report  the  result  to  commissioner  Ross  at 
Uniontown  the  16th  of  the  same  month,  on  which 
day  he  would  set  out  for  Philadelphia.  The  time 
was  inadequate,  but  there  was  no  help.  Gallatin 
hastened  the  submission  of  Fayette,  and  a  meet 
ing  of  committees  from  the  several  townships  met 
at  the  county  seat,  Uniontown,  on  September  10, 
1794,  when  a  declaration  drawn  by  Mr.  Gallatin 
was  unanimously  adopted.  A  passage  in  this  ad 
mirable  paper  shows  the  comparative  order  which 
prevailed  in  Fayette  County  during  this  period  of 
trouble.  It  is  an  appeal  to  the  people  of  the 
neighboring  counties,  who,  under  the  influence  of 
their  passions  and  resentment,  might  blame  those 
of  Fayette  for  their  moderation. 

"  The  only  reflection  we  mean  to  suggest  to  them 
is  the  disinterestedness  of  our  conduct  upon  this  occasion. 
The  indictable  offences  to  be  buried  in  oblivion  were 
committed  amongst  them,  and  almost  every  civil  suit 
that  has  been  instituted  under  the  revenue  law,  in  the 
federal  court,  was  commenced  against  citizens  of  this 
county.  By  the  terms  proposed,  the  criminal  prosecu 
tions  are  to  be  dropped,  but  no  condition  could  be 
obtained  for  the  civil  suits.  We  have  been  instrumental 
in  obtaining  an  amnesty,  from  which  those  alone  who 
had  a  share  in  the  riots  derive  a  benefit,  and  the  other 
inhabitants  of  the  western  country  have  gained  nothing 
for  themselves." 

This  declaration  was  forwarded  on  September 
17  to  Governor  Mifflin,  with  reasons  for  the  delay, 


THE    WHISKEY  INSURRECTION.  89 

and  advice  that  signatures  were  fast  being  ob 
tained,  not  only  in  the  neighboring  counties,  but 
even  in  Fayette,  where  this  formality  had  not 
been  thought  necessary.  It  closes  with  a  forcible 
appeal  to  delay  the  sending  of  troops  until  every 
conciliatory  measure  should  have  proved  abortive. 

But  the  commissioners,  unfortunately,  were  not 
favorably  impressed  with  the  reception  they  met 
with  or  the  scenes  they  witnessed  on  their  western 
mission.  They  had  heard  of  Bradford's  threat  to 
establish  an  independent  government  west  of  the 
mountains,  and  they  had  seen  a  liberty  pole  raised 
upon  which  the  people  with  the  greatest  difficulty 
had  been  dissuaded  from  hoisting  a  flag  with  six 
stripes  —  emblematic  of  the  six  counties  repre 
sented  in  the  committee.  The  flag  was  made,  but 
set  aside  for  the  fifteen  stripes  with  reluctance. 
This  is  Findley's  recollection,  but  Brackenridge 
says  that  it  was  a  flag  of  seven  stars  for  the  four 
western  counties,  Bedford,  and  the  two  counties 
of  Virginia.  This,  he  adds,  was  the  first  and 
only  manifestation  among  any  class  of  a  desire  to 
separate  from  the  Union.  But  here  his  memory 
failed  him. 

Hamilton  had  long  been  impatient.  Again,  as 
in  old  days,  he  presented  his  arguments  directly 
to  the  people.  Under  the  heading,  "  Tully  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States,"  he  printed  a  letter 
on  August  26,  of  which  the  following  is  a  pas- 


90  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

"  Your  representatives  in  Congress,  pursuant  to  the 
commission  derived  from  you,  and  with  a  full  knowledge 
of  the  public  exigencies,  have  laid  an  excise.  At  three 
succeeding  sessions  they  have  revised  that  act  .  .  .  and 
you  have  actually  paid  more  than  a  million  of  dollars  on 
account  of  it.  But  the  four  western  counties  of  Pennsyl 
vania  undertake  to  rejudge  and  reverse  your  decrees. 
You  have  said,  '  The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  lay 
excises'  They  say,  <  The  Congress  shall  not  have  this 
power  ; '  or,  what  is  equivalent,  they  shall  not  exercise 
it,  for  a  power  that  may  not  be  exercised  is  a  nullity. 
Your  representatives  have  said,  and  four  times  repeated 
it, '  An  excise  on  distilled  spirits  shall  be  collected ; '  they 
say  it  shall  not  be  collected.  We  will  punish,  expel, 
and  banish  the  officers  who  shall  attempt  the  collection." 

The  peace  commissioners  returned  to  Philadel 
phia  and  made  their  report  on  September  24.   The 
next   day,    September   25,  Washington   issued   a 
proclamation    calling   out   the   troops.     In  it   he 
again  warned  the  insurgents.  The  militia,  already 
armed,   accoutred,   and   equipped,   and    awaiting 
marching  orders,  moved  at  once.  Governor  Mifflin 
at  first  hesitated  about  his  power  to  call  out  the 
militia,  but  when  the  President's  requisition  was 
made,  he  summoned  the  Legislature  in  special  ses 
sion,  and  obtained  from  it  a  hearty  support,  with 
authority  to  accept  volunteers  and  offer  a  bounty. 
Thus  fortified,  he  made  a  tour  through  the  lower 
counties  of  the  State,  and  by  his  extraordinary 
popular  eloquence  soon  filled  up  the  ranks.     The 


THE    WHISKEY  INSURRECTION.  91 

old  soldier  led  his  troops  in  person.  Those  of 
New  Jersey  were  commanded  by  their  governor, 
Richard  Howell  of  Revolutionary  fame.  These 
formed  the  right  wing  and  marched  to  rendezvous 
at  Bedford  to  cross  the  mountains  by  the  northern 
and  Pennsylvania  route.  The  left  wing,  composed 
of  the  Virginia  troops,  under  the  veteran  Morgan, 
and  those  of  Maryland,  under  Samuel  Smith,  a 
brigadier-general  in  the  army  of  the  Revolution, 
assembled  at  Cumberland  to  cross  the  mountains 
by  Braddock's  Road.  The  chief  command  was 
confided  to  Governor  Henry  Lee  of  Virginia. 
Washington  accompanied  the  army  as  far  as 
Bedford.  Hamilton  continued  with  it  to  Pitts 
burgh,  which  was  reached  in  the  last  days  of 
October  and  the  first  of  November,  after  a  wea 
risome  march  across  the  mountains  in  heavy 
weather.  Arrived  in  the  western  counties,  the 
army  found  no  opposition. 

Meanwhile,  on  October  2,  the  standing  com 
mittee  met  again  at  Parkinson's  Ferry,  and  unani 
mously  adopted  resolutions  declaring  the  general 
submission,  and  explaining  the  reasons  why  signa 
tures  to  the  amnesty  had  not  been  general.  Find- 
ley  and  Redick  were  appointed  to  take  these  res 
olutions  to  the  President,  and  to  urge  him  to  stop 
the  march  of  the  troops.  They  met  the  left  wing 
at  Carlisle.  Washington  received  them  courteously, 
but  did  not  consent  to  countermand  the  march. 
They  hurried  back  for  more  unequivocal  assur- 


92  ALBERT   GALLATIN. 

ances,  which  they  hoped  to  be  able  to  carry  to 
meet  Washington  on  his  way  to  review  the  right 
wing.  On  October  14,  the  day  of  the  autumn 
elections,  general  submissions  were  universally 
•  signed,  and  finally,  on  October  24,  a  third  and  last 
meeting  was  held  at  Parkinson's  Ferry,  at  which 
a  thousand  people  attended,  when,  with  James 
Edgar,  chairman,  and  Albert  Gallatin,  secretary, 
it  was  resolved,  first,  that  the  civil  authority  was 
fully  competent  to  punish  both  past  and  future 
breaches  of  the  law ;  secondly,  that  surrender 
should  be  made  of  all  persons  charged  with  of 
fences,  in  default  of  which  the  committee  would 
aid  in  bringing  them  to  justice  ;  thirdly,  that 
offices  of  inspection  might  be  opened,  and  that 
the  distillers  were  willing  and  ready  to  enter  their 
stills. 

These  resolutions  were  published  in  the  "  Pitts 
burgh  Gazette."  Findley  carried  them  to  Bedford, 
but  before  he  reached  the  army  the  President  had 
returned  to  Philadelphia.  The  march  of  the  army 
was  not  stopped.  The  two  wings  made  a  junc 
tion  at  Uniontown.  Companies  of  horse  were  scat 
tered  through  the  country.  New  submissions  were 
made,  and  the  oath  of  allegiance,  required  by 
General  Lee,  was  generally  taken. 

Hamilton  now  investigated  the  whole  matter  of 
the  insurrection,  and  it  was  charged  against  him, 
and  the  charge  is  supported  by  Findley,  with 
names  of  persons,  that  he  spared  no  effort  to  se- 


THE   WHISKEY  INSURRECTION,  93 

cure  evidence  to  bring  Gallatin  within  the  pale  of 
an  indictment.  Of  course  he  failed  in  this  pur 
pose,  if  indeed  it  were  ever  seriously  entertained. 
But  the  belief  that  Gallatin  was  the  arch-fiend, 
who  instigated  the  Whiskey  Insurrection,  had  al~* 
ready  become  a  settled  article  in  the  Federalist 
creed,  and  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  long  after 
the  Federalist  party  had  become  a  tradition  of  the 
past,  the  Genevan  was  held  up  to  scorn  and 
hatred,  as  an  incarnation  of  deviltry  —  an  en 
emy  of  mankind. 

On  the  8th  November,  Hamilton,  who  remained 
with  the  army,  wrote  to  the  President  that  Gen 
eral  Lee  had  concluded  to  take  hold  of  all  who 
are  worth  the  trouble  by  the  military  arm,  and 
then  to  deliver  them  over  to  the  disposition  of 
the  judiciary.  In  the  mean  time,  he  adds,  u  all 
possible  means  are  using  to  obtain  evidence,  and 
accomplices  will  be  turned  against  the  others." 

The  night  of  November  13, 1T94,  was  appointed 
for  the  arrests ;  a  dreadful  night  Findley  describes 
it  to  have  been.  The  night  was  frosty  ;  at  eight 
o'clock  the  horse  sallied  forth,  and  before  day 
light  arrested  in  their  beds  about  two  hundred 
men.  The  New  Jersey  horse  made  the  seizures 
in  the  Mingo  Creek  settlement,  the  hot-bed  of  the 
insurrection  and  the  scene  of  the  early  excesses. 
The  prisoners  were  taken  to  Pittsburgh,  and 
thence,  mounted  on  horses,  and  guarded  by  the 
Philadelphia  Gentlemen  Corps,  to  the  capitaL 


94  ALBERT  GALLAT1N. 

Their  entrance  into  Cannonsburg  is  graphically  de 
scribed  by  Dr.  Carnahan,  president  of  Princeton 
College,  in  his  account  of  the  insurrection. 

"  The  contrast  between  the  Philadelphia  horsemen 
and  the  prisoners  was  the  most  striking  that  can  be 
imagined.  The  Philadelphians  were  some  of  the  most 
wealthy  and  respectable  men  of  that  city.  Their  uni 
form  was  blue,  of  the  finest  broadcloth.  Their  horses 
were  large  and  beautiful,  all  of  a  bay  color,  so  nearly 
alike  that  it  seemed  that  every  two  of  them  would  make 
a  good  span  of  coach  horses.  Their  trappings  were 
superb.  Their  bridles,  stirrups,  and  martingales  glittered 
with  silver.  Their  swords,  which  were  drawn,  and 
held  elevated  in  the  right  hand,  gleamed  in  the  rays  of 
the  setting  sun.  The  prisoners  were  also  mounted  on 
horses  of  all  shapes,  sizes,  and  colors ;  some  large,  some 
small,  some  long  tails,  some  short,  some  fat,  some  lean, 
some  every  color  and  form  that  can  be  named.  Some 
had  saddles,  some  blankets,  some  bridles,  some  halters, 
some  with  stirrups-,  some  with  none.  The  riders  also 
were  various  and  grotesque  in  their  appearance.  Some 
were  old,  some  young,  some  hale,  respectable  looking 
men  ;  others  were  pale,  meagre,  and  shabbily  dressed. 
Some  had  great  coats,  —  others  had  blankets  on  their 
shoulders.  The  countenance  of  some  was  down  cast, 
melancholy,  dejected;  that  of  others  stern,  indignant, 
manifesting  that  they  thought  themselves  undeserving 
such  treatment.  Two  Philadelphia  horsemen  rode  in 
front  and  then  two  prisoners,  and  two  horsemen  and  two 
prisoners,  actually  throughout  a  line  extending  perhaps 
half  a  mile.  ...  If  these  men  had  been  the  ones  chiefly 


THE    WHISKEY  INSURRECTION.  95 

guilty  of  the  disturbance,  it  would  have  been  no  more 
than  they  deserved.     But   the   guilty   had   signed  the* 
amnesty,  or  had   left  the  county  before    the  army  ap 
proached." 

Dallas,  the  Secretary  of  State,  Gallatin's  friend, 
was  one  of  this  troop.  Gallatin  saw  him  soon  af 
ter  his  return.  In  a  letter  to  his  wife  of  December 
3,  Gallatin  relates  the  experience  of  the  trooper 
who  had  little  stomach  for  the  work  he  had  to  do. 

"  I  saw  Dallas  yesterday.  Poor  fellow  had  a  most 
disagreeable  campaign  of  it.  He  says  the  spirits,  I 
call  it  the  madness,  of  the  Philadelphia  Gentlemen's 
Corps  was  beyond  conception  before  the  arrival  of  the 
President.  He  saw  a  list  (handed  about  through  the 
army  by  officers,  nay,  by  a  general  officer)  of  the  names 
of  those  persons  who  were  to  be  destroyed  at  all  events, 
and  you  may  easily  guess  my  own  was  one  of  the  most 
conspicuous.  Being  one  day  at  table  with  sundry 
officers,  and  having  expressed  his  opinion  that,  if  the 
army  were  going  only  to  support  the  civil  authority,  and 
not  to  do  any  military  execution,  one  of  them  (Dallas 
did  not  tell  me  his  name,  but  I  am  told  it  was  one  Ross 
of  Lancaster,  aide-de-camp  to  Mifflin)  half  drew  a  dagger 
he  wore  instead  of  a  sword,  and  swore  any  man  who 
uttered  such  sentiments  ought  to  be  dagged.  The  Pres 
ident,  however,  on  his  arrival,  and  afterwards  Hamilton, 
took  uncommon  pains  to  change  the  sentiments,  and  at 
last  it  became  fashionable  to  adopt,  or  at  least  to  express, 
sentiments  similar  to  those  inculcated  by  them." 

Randolph  was,  perhaps,  not  far  out  of  the  way 
in  his  fear  of  a  civil  war  should  blood  be  drawn, 


96  ALBERT   GAL  LATIN. 

and  in  his  conviction  that  the  influence  of  Wash 
ington  was  the  only  sedative  for  the  fevered 
political  pulse.  On  November  17  general  orders 
were  issued  for  the  return  of  the  army,  a  detach 
ment  of  twenty-five  hundred  men  only  remaining 
in  the  West,  under  command  of  General  Morgan. 
There  were  no  further  disturbances.  The  army 
expenses  gave  a  circulating  medium,  and  the  farm 
ers,  having  now  the  means  to  pay  their  taxes, 
made  no  further  complaints  of  the  excise  law. 
The  total  expense  of  the  insurrection  to  the  gov 
ernment  was  $800,000. 

Mr.  Gallatin  returned  with  his  wife  from  his 
western  home  early  in  November.  He  had  been 
again  chosen  at  the  October  elections  to  represent 
Fayette  in  the  Pennsylvania  Assembly.  More 
over,  at  the  same  time  he  was  elected  to  rep 
resent  the  congressional  district  of  Washington 
and  Allegheny  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  United  States.  Of  four  candidates  Gallatin 
led  the  poll.  Judge  Brackenridge  was  next  in 
order.  No  better  proof  is  needed  of  the  firm  hold 
Gallatin  had  in  the  esteem  and  affection  of  the 
people.  No  doubt,  either,  that  they  understood  his 
principles,  and  relied  upon  his  sincere  attachment 
to  the  country  he  had  made  his  home. 

When  he  appeared  to  take  his  seat  in  the  As 
sembly  he  found  that  his  election  was  contested. 
A  petition  was  presented  from  thirty-four  persons 
calling  themselves  peaceable  citizens  of  Washing- 


THE   WHISKEY  INSURRECTION.  97 

ton  County,  which  stated  that  their  votes  had  not 
been  cast,  because  of  the  disturbed  condition  of  the 
country,  and  requested  the  Assembly  to  declare 
the  district  to  have  been  in  a  state  of  insurrection 
at  the  time  of  the  election,  and  to  vacate  the  same. 
Mr.  Gallatin  knew  the  person  who  procured  the 
signatures,  and  also  that  the  business  originated 
in  the  army.  It  was  couched  in  terms  insulting 
to  all  the  members  elect  from  that  district.  After 
a  protracted  debate  the  election  was  declared  void 
on  January  9,  1795.  It  was  during  this  debate 
that  Mr.  Gallatin  made  the  celebrated  speech, 
called  "  The  speech  on  the  western  elections,"  in 
which  occurs  the  confession  already  alluded  to. 
Speaking  of  the  Pittsburgh  resolutions  of  1792, 
he  said  :  — 

"  I  might  say  that  those  resolutions  did  not  originate 
at  Pittsburgh,  as  they  were  almost  a  transcript  of  the 
resolutions  adopted  at  Washington  the  preceding  year ; 
and  I  might  even  add  that  they  were  not  introduced  by 
me  at  the  meeting,  But  I  wish  not  to  exculpate  myself 
where  I  feel  I  have  been  to  blame.  The  sentiments 
thus  expressed  were  not  illegal  or  criminal ;  yet  I  will 
freely  acknowledge  that  they  were  violent,  intemperate, 
and  reprehensible.  For,  by  attempting  to  render  the 
office  contemptible,  they  tended  to  diminish  that  respect 
for  the  execution  of  the  laws  which  is  essential  to  the 
maintenance  of  a  free  government ;  but  whilst  I  feel 
regret  at  the  remembrance,  though  no  hesitation  in  this 
open  confession  of  that  my  only  political  sin,  let  me  add 
that  the  blame  ought  to  fall  where  it  is  deserved." 
7 


98  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

This  was  the  first  speech  of  Gallatin  that  ap 
peared  in  print — simple,  lucid,  convincing.  The 
result  of  the  new  Assembly  election  would  natu 
rally  determine  the  right  of  the  representatives  of 
the  contested  district  to  their  seats  in  Congress. 
Word  had  gone  forth  from  the  Treasury  Depart 
ment  that  Gallatin  must  not  take  his  seat  in  Con 
gress,  and  the  whippers-in  took  heed  of  the  desire 
of  their  chief.  A  line  of  instruction  to  Badollet, 
who  lived  at  Greensburg  in  Washington  County, 
across  the  river  from  Gallatin's  residence,  deter 
mined  the  matter.  Gallatin  warned  him  against 
the  attempt  that  would  be  made  to  disaffect  that 
district  because  none  of  the  representatives  whose 
seats  had  been  vacated  were  residents  of  it.  "  Fall 
not  into  the  snare,"  he  wrote  ;  "  take  up  nobody 
from  your  own  district ;  reelect  unanimously  the 
same  members,  whether  they  be  your  favorites  or 
not.  It  is  necessary  for  the  sake  of  our  general 
character."  Here  is  an  instance  of  that  true  po 
litical  instinct  which  made  of  him  "  the  ideal  party 
leader."  His  advice  was  followed,  and  all  the 
members  were  reflected  but  one,  who  declined. 
Mr.  Gallatin  returned  to  his  seat  in  the  Assembly 
on  February  14,  and  retained  it  until  March  12, 
when  he  asked  and  obtained  leave  of  absence. 
He  does  not  appear  to  have  taken  further  part  in 
the  session.  The  subjects,  personal  to  himself, 
which  occupied  his  attention  during  the  summer 
will  be  touched  upon  elsewhere. 


THE    WHISKEY  INSURRECTION.  99 

The  pitiful  business  of  the  trial  of  the  western 
prisoners  needs  only  brief  mention.  In  May  Gal- 
latin  was  summoned  before  the  grand  jury  as  a 
witness  on  the  part  of  the  government.  The  in 
quiry  was  finished  May  12,  and  twenty-two  bills 
wer6  found  for  treason.  Against  Fayette  two 
bills  were  found ;  one  for  misdemeanor  in  raising 
the  liberty  pole  in  Uniontown.  The  petit  jury 
was  composed  of  twelve  men  from  each  of  the 
counties  of  Fayette,  Washington,  Allegheny,  and 
Northumberland,  but  none  from  Westmoreland. 
One  man,  a  German  from  Westmoreland,  who 
was  concerned  in  a  riot  in  Fayette,  was  found 
guilty  and  condemned  to  death.  Mr.  Gallatin,  at 
the  request  of  the  jury,  drew  a  petition  to  the 
President,  who  granted  a  pardon.  Washington 
extended  mercy  to  the  only  other  offender  who 
incurred  the  same  penalty. 

To  the  close  of  this  national  episode,  which, 
in  its  various  phases  of  incident  and  character,  is 
of  dramatic  interest,  Gallatin,  through  good  re 
pute  and  ill  repute,  stood  manfully  by  his  con 
stituents  and  friends. 


CHAPTER  V. 

MEMBER   OF  CONGRESS. 

THE  first  session  of  the  fourth  Congress  began 
at  Philadelphia  on  Monday,  December  7,  1795. 
Washington  was  President,  John  Adams  Vice- 
President.  No  one  of  Washington's  original  con 
stitutional  advisers  remained  in  his  cabinet.  Jef 
ferson  retired  from  the  State  Department  at  the 
beginning  of  the  first  session  of  the  third  Con 
gress.  Edmund  Randolph,  appointed  in  his  place, 
resigned  in  a  cloud  of  obloquy  on  August  19, 1795, 
and  the  portfolio  was  temporarily  in  charge  of 
Timothy  Pickering,  Secretary  of  War.  Hamilton 
resigned  the  department  of  the  Treasury  on  Jan 
uary  31,  1795,  and  Oliver  Wolcott,  Jr.,  succeeded 
him  in  that  most  important  of  the  early  offices 
of  the  government.  General  Henry  Knox,  the 
first  Secretary  of  War,  pressed  by  his  own  pri 
vate  affairs  and  the  interests  of  a  large  family, 
withdrew  on  December  28,  1794,  and  Timothy 
Pickering,  the  Postmaster  General,  had  been  ap 
pointed  in  his  stead  January  2,  1795.  The  Navy 
Department  was  not  as  yet  established  (the  act 
creating  it  was  passed  April  30,  1798),  but  the 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  101 

affairs  which  concerned  this  branch  of  the  public 
service  were  under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary 
of  War.  The  administration  of  Washington  was 
drawing  to  a  close.  In  the  lately  reconstructed 
cabinet,  honest,  patriotic,  and  thorough  in  admin 
istration,  there  was  no  man  of  shining  mark. 
The  Senate  was  still  in  the  hands  of  the  Federal! 
party.  The  bare  majority  which  rejected  Galla- 
tin  in  the  previous  Congress  had  increased  to  a 
sufficient  strength  for  party  purposes,  but  neither 
in  the  ranks  of  the  administration  nor  the  opposi-t 
tion  was  there  in  this  august  assemblage  one  cqn>( 
manding  figure. 

The  House  was  nearly  equally  divided.  The 
post  of  speaker  was  warmly  contested.  Frederick 
A.  Muhlenberg  of  Pennsylvania,  who  had  pre 
sided  over  the  House  at  the  sessions  of  the  first 
Congress,  1789-1791,  and  again  over  the  third, 
1793-1795,  was  the  candidate  of  the  Federalists, 
but  was  defeated  by  Jonathan  Dayton  of  New 
Jersey,  whose  views  in  the  last  session  had  drifted 
him  into  sympathy  with  the  Republican  opposi 
tion.  The  House,  when  full,  numbered  one  hun 
dred  and  five  members,  among  whom  were  the 
ablest  men  in  the  country,  veterans  of  debate 
versed  in  parliamentary  law  and  skilled  in  the 
niceties  of  party  fence.  In  the  Federal  ranks, 
active,  conscious  of  their  power,  and  proud  of  the 
great  party  which  gloried  in  Washington  as  their 
chief,  were  Robert  Goodloe  Harper  of  South  Car- 


102  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

olina,  Theodore  Sedgwick  of  Massachusetts,  Roger 
Griswold  and  Uriah  Tracy  of  Connecticut,  who 
led  the  front  and  held  the  wings  of  debate ;  while 
in  reserve,  broken  in  health  but  still  in  the  prime 
of  life,  the  pride  of  his  party  and  of  the  House, 
was  Fisher  Ames,  the  orator  of  his  day,  whose 
magic  tones  held  friend  and  foe  in  rapt  attention, 
while  he  mastered  the  reason  or  touched  the  heart. 
Upon  these  men  the  Federal  party  relied  for  the 
vindication  of  their  principles  and  the  mainte 
nance  of  their  power.  Supporting  them  were  Wil 
liam  Vans  Murray  of  Maryland,  Goodrich  and 
Hillhouse  of  Connecticut,  William  Smith  of  South 
Carolina,  Sitgreaves  of  Pennsylvania,  and  in  the 
ranks  a  well-trained  party.  Opposed  to  this  for 
midable  array  of  Federal  talent  was  the  Republi 
can  party,  young,  vigorous,  and  in  majority,  bold 
in  their  ideas  but  as  yet  hesitating  in  purpose 
under  the  controlling  if  not  overruling  influence 
of  the  name  and  popularity  of  Washington. 

Hamilton  watched  the  shifting  fortunes  of  his 
party  from  a  distance,  and  found  time  in  the  pres 
sure  of  a  large  legal  practice  to  aid  each  branch 
of  administration  in  turn  with  his  advice.  But 
though  he  still  inspired  its  councils,  he  no  longer 
directed  its  course.  In  his  Monticello  home  Jef 
ferson  waited  till  the  fruit  was  ripe  for  falling, 
occasionally  impatient  that  his  followers  did  not 
more  roughly  shake  the  tree. 

The  open  rupture  of  Jefferson  with  Hamilton 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  103 

was  the  first  great  break  in  the  Federal  admin 
istration  ;  the  lukewarmness  of  Madison,  whose 
leanings  were  always  towards  Jefferson,  followed. 
At  the  head  of  the  Republican  opposition  was 
Madison.  Wise  in  council,  convincing  in  argu 
ment,  an  able  and  even  adroit  debater,  he  was  an 
admirable  leader,  but  his  tactics  were  rather  of 
the  closet  than  the  field.  He  was  wanting  in  the 
personal  vigor  which,  scorning  defence,  delights 
in  bold  attack  upon  the  central  position  of  the 
enemy,  and  carries  opposition  to  the  last  limit  of 
parliamentary  aggression.  With  this  mildness  of 
character,  though  recognized  as  the  leader  of  his 
party,  he,  as  a  habit,  waived  his  control  upon  the 
floor  of  the  House,  and,  reserving  his  interference 
for  occasions  when  questions  of  constitutional  in 
terpretation  arose,  left  the  general  direction  of 
debate  to  William  B.  Giles  of  Virginia,  a  skilful 
tactician  and  a  ready  debater,  keen,  bold,  and 
troubled  by  no  scruples  of  modesty,  respect,  or 
reverence  for  friend  or  foe.  Of  equal  vigor,  but 
of  more  reserve,  was  John  Nicholas  of  Virginia  — 
a  man  of  strong  intellect,  reliable  temper,  and  with 
the  dignity  of  the  old  school.  To  these  were  now 
added  Albert  Gallatin  and  Edward  Livingston. 
Edward  Livingston,  from  New  York,  was  young, 
and  as  yet  inexperienced  in  debate,  but  of  remark 
able  powers.  He  was  another  example  of  that 
early  intellectual  maturity  which  was  a  character 
istic  of  the  time. 


104  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

When  Congress  met,  the  all-disturbing  question 
was  the  foreign  policy  of  the  United  States.  The 
influence  of  the  French  Revolution  upon  American 
politics  was  great.  The  Federalists,  conservative 
in  their  views,  held  the  new  democratic  doctrines 
in  abhorrence,  and  used  the  terrible  excesses  of 
the  French  Revolution  with  telling  force  against 
their  Republican  adversaries.  The  need  of  a 
strong  government  was  held  up  as  the  only  alter 
native  to  anarchy.  In  the  struggle  which  now 
united  Europe  against  the  French  Republic,  the 
sympathies  of  the  Federalists  were  with  England. 
Hence  they  were  accused  of  a  desire  to  establish  a 
monarchy  in  the  United  States,  and  were  igno- 
miniously  called  the  British  party.  Shays's  Re 
bellion  in  Massachusetts  and  the  Whiskey  In 
surrection  in  Pennsylvania  gave  point  to  their 
arguments. 

On  the  other  side  was  the  large  and  powerful 
party  which,  throughout  the  war  in  the  Continental 
Congress,  under  the  confederation  in  the  national 
convention  which  framed  and  in  the  state  con 
ventions  which  ratified  the  Constitution,  had  op 
posed  the  tendency  to  centralization,  but  had  been 
defeated  by  the  yearning  of  the  body  of  the  plain 
people  for  a  government  strong  enough  at  least  to 
secure  them  peace  at  home  and  protection  abroad. 
This  natural  craving  being  satisfied,  the  old  aver 
sion  to  class  distinctions  returned.  The  dread  of 
an  aristocracy,  which  did  not  exist  even  in  name, 


MEMBER   OF  CONGRESS.  105 

threw  many  of  the  supporters  of  the  Constitution 
into  the  ranks  of  its  opponents,  who  were  demo 
crats  in  name  and  in  fact.  The  proclamation  of 
the  rights  of  man  awoke  this  latent  sentiment, 
and  aroused  an  intense  sympathy  for  the  people 
of  France.  This  again  was  strengthened  by  the 
memory,  still  warm,  of  the  services  of  France  in 
the  cause  of  independence.  Lafayette,  who  rep 
resented  the  true  French  republican  spirit,  and 
held  a  place  in  the  affections  of  the  American 
people  second  only  to  that  of  Washington,  was 
languishing,  a  prisoner  to  the  coalition  of  sover 
eigns,  in  an  Austrian  dungeon. 

Jefferson  returned  from  France  deeply  imbued 
with  the  spirit  of  the  French  Revolution.  His 
views  were  warmly  received  by  his  political 
friends,  and  the  principles  of  the  new  school  of 
politics  were  rapidly  spread  by  an  eager  band  of 
acolytes,  whose  ranks  were  recruited  until  the 
feeble  opposition  became  a  powerful  party.  Dem 
ocratic  societies  organized  on  the  plan  of  the 
French  Jacobin  clubs  extended  French  influence, 
and  no  doubt  were  aided  in  a  practical  way 
by  Genet,  whose  recent  marriage  with  the  daugh 
ter  of  George  Clinton,  the  head  of  the  Republican 
party  in  New  York,  was  an  additional  link  in  the 
bond  of  alliance. 

During  the  second  session  of  the  third  Congress 
Madison  had  led  the  opposition  in  a  mild  manner ; 
party  lines  were  not  yet  strongly  defined,  and  the 


106  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

influence  of  Washington  was  paramount.  In  the 
interim  between  its  expiration  and  the  meeting  of 
the  fourth  Congress  in  December,  the  country  was 
wildly  agitated  by  the  Jay  treaty.  This  document 
not  reaching  America  until  after  the  adjournment 
of  Congress  in  March,  Washington  convened  the 
Senate  in  extra  and  secret  session  on  June  1,  and 
the  treaty  was  ratified  by  barely  two  thirds  ma 
jority.  Imprudently  withheld  for  a  time,  it  was 
at  last  made  public  by  Senator  Mason  of  Virginia, 
one  of  the  ten  who  voted  against  its  ratification. 
It  disappointed  the  people,  and  was  denounced  as 
a  weak  and  ignominious  surrender  of  American 
rights.  The  merchants  of  Boston,  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  and  Charleston  protested  against  it 
in  public  meetings.  It  was  burned,  and  the  Eng 
lish  flag  was  trailed  in  the  dust  before  the  British 
Minister's  house  at  the  capital.  Jay  was  hung  in 
effigy,  and  Hamilton,  who  ventured  to  defend  the 
treaty  at  a  public  meeting,  was  stoned.  To  add 
to  the  popular  indignation  that  the  impress 
of  American  seamen  had  been  ignored  in  tt 
strument,  came  the  alarming  news  that  the  British 
ministry  had  renewed  their  order  to  seize  vessels 
carrying  provisions  to  France,  whither  a  large  part 
of  the  American  grain  crop  was  destined.  On  the 
other  hand,  Randolph,  the  Secretary  of  State,  had 
compromised  the  dignity  of  his  official  position 
in  his  intercourse  with  Fauchet,  the  late  French 
Ambassador,  whose  correspondence  with  his  gov- 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  107 

ernment,  thrown  overboard  from  a  French  packet, 
had  been  fished  up  by  a  British  man-of-war,  and 
forwarded  to  Grenville,  by  whom  it  was  returned 
to  America.  Thus  petard  answered  petard,  -and 
the  charge  by  the  Republicans  upon  the  Feder 
alists  of  taking  British  gold  was  returned  with 
interest,  and  the  accusation  of  receiving  bribe 
money  was  brought  close  home  to  Randolph,  if 
not  proved. 

Hard  names  were  not  wanting  either  ;  Jefferson 
was  ridiculed  as  a  sans-culotte  and  red-legged 
democrat.  Nor  was  Washington  spared.  He  was 
charged  with  an  assumption  of  royal  airs,  with 
political  hypocris}^  and  even  with  being  a  public 
defaulter ;  a  charge  which  no  one  dared  to  father, 
and  which  was  instantly  shown  to  be  false  and  ma 
licious.  It  wns  made  by  Bache  in  "  The  Aurora,  " 
a  contemptible  sheet  after  the  fashion  of  "L'Ami 
du  Peuple,"  Marat's  Paris  organ. 

Such  was  the  temper  of  the  people  when  the 
House  of  Representatives  met  on  December  7, 
1795.  The  Speaker,  Dayton,  was  strongly  anti- 
British  in  feeling.  He  was  a  family  connection  of 
Burr,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  was 
under  the  personal  influence  of  that  adroit  and  un 
scrupulous  partisan.  On  the  8th  President  Wash 
ington,  according  to  his  custom,  addressed  both 
houses  of  Congress.  This  day  for  the  first  time 
the  gallery  was  thrown  open  to  the  public.  When 
the  reply  of  the  Senate  came  up  for  consideration, 


108  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

the  purpose  of  the  Republicans  was  at  once  mani 
fest.  They  would  not  consent  to  the  approbation 
it  expressed  of  the  conduct  of  the  administration. 
They  would  not  admit  that  the  causes  of  external 
discord  had  been  extinguished  "  on  terms  consist 
ent  with  our  national  honor  and  safety,"  or  indeed 
extinguished  at  all,  and  they  would  not  acknowl 
edge  that  the  efforts  of  the  President  to  establish 
the  peace,  freedom,  and  prosperity  of  the  country 
had  been  "  enlightened  and  firm."  Nevertheless 
the  address  was  agreed  to  by  a  vote  of  14  to  8. 

In  the  House  a  resolution  was  moved  that  a 
respectful  address  ought  to  be  presented.  The 
opposition  immediately  declared  itself.  Objection 
was  made  to  an  address,  and  in  its  stead  the  ap 
pointment  of  a  committee  to  wait  personallv  ^~ 
the  President  was  moved.  The  covert  inten 
apparent  through  the  thin  veil  of  expediency 
the  Republicans  as  a  body  were  unwilling  to  go  this 
length  in  discourtesy  and  did  not  support  the  mo 
tion.  Only  eighteen  members  voted  for  it.  Messrs. 
Madison,  Sedgwick,  and  Sitgreaves,  the  committee 
to  report  an  address,  brought  in  a  draft  on  the  14th 
which  was  ordered  to  be  printed  for  the  use  of  the 
members.  The  next  day  the  work  of  dissection  was 
begun  by  an  objection  to  the  words  "  probably 
unequalled  spectacle  of  national  happiness "  ap 
plied  to  the  country,  and  the  words  "  undiminished 
confidence  "  applied  to  the  President.  The  words 
"  probably  unequalled  "  were  stricken  out  without 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  109 

decided   opposition   by   a   vote  of  forty-three   to 
thirty-nine.      Opinions  were  divided  on  that  sub 
ject  even  in  the  ranks  of  the   Federalists.     The 
cause  of  dissatisfaction  was  the  Jay  treaty.    The 
address  was  recommitted  without  a  division.    The 
next  day  Madison  brought  in  the  address  with  a 
modification  of  the  clause  objected  to.     In  its  new 
form    the    "very   great    share "  of    Washington's 
zealous  and  faithful  services  in  securing  the  na 
tional  happiness  was  acknowledged.     The  address  • 
thus  amended  was  unanimously  adopted.     In  this 
encounter  nothing  was  gained  by  the  Republicans. 
The  people  would  not  have  endured  an  open  decla-- 
ration  of  want  of  confidence  in  Washington.     But 
the  entering  wedge  of  the  new  policy  was  driven. 
The  treaty  was  to  be  assailed.     It  was,  however, 
the  pretext,  not  the  cause  of  the  struggle,  the  real 
object  of  which  was  to  extend  the  powers  of  the  ~\ 
House,  and  subordinate  the  Executive  to  its  will.    I 
Before  beginning  the  main  attack  the  Republicans  ' 
developed  their  general   plan  in   their  treatment 
of  secondary  issues ;    of  these  the    principal   was 
a  tightening  of  the  control  of  the  House  over  the 
Treasury  Department.     In  this  Mr.  Gallatin  took 
the  lead.     His  first  measure  was  the  appointment 
of  a  standing  Committee  of  Finance  to  superintend 
the  general  operations  of  this  nature,  —  an  efficient 
aid  to  the  Treasury  when  there  was  accord  between 
the  administration   and  the  House,  an   annoying 
censor  when  the  latter  was  in  opposition.     This 


110  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

was  the  beginning  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Com 
mittee,  which  soon  became  and  has  since  contin 
ued  to  be  the  most  important  committee  of  the 
House.  To  it  were  to  be  referred  all  reports  from 
the  Treasury  Department,  all  propositions  relating 
to  revenue,  and  it  was  to  report  on  the  state  of 
the  public  debt,  revenue,  and  expenditures.  The 
committee  was  appointed  without  opposition.  It 
consisted  of  fourteen  members,  William  Smith, 
•Sedgwick,  Madison,  Baldwin,  Gallatin,  Bourne, 
Gilman,  Murray,  Buck,  Gilbert,  Isaac  Smith, 
Blount,  Patten,  and  Hillhouse,  and  represented 
the  strength  of  both  political  parties.  To  this 
committee  the  estimates  of  appropriations  for  the 
support  of  the  government  for  the  coming  year 
were  referred.  The  next  step  was  to  bring  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  House  the  precise  condition  of 
the  Treasury.  To  this  end  the  Secretary  was  called 
upon  to  furnish  comparative  views  of  the  com 
merce  and  tonnage  of  the  country  for  every  year 
from  the  formation  of  the  department  in  1789, 
with  tables  of  the  exports  and  imports,  foreign 
and  domestic, .  separately  stated,  and  with  a  di 
vision  of  the  nationality  of  the  carrying  vessels. 
Later,  comparative  views  were  demanded  of  the 
receipts  and  expenditures  for  each  year ;  the  re 
ceipts  under  the  heads  of  Loans,  Revenue  in  its 
various  forms,  and  others  in  their  several  divisions  ; 
the  expenditures,  also,  to  be  classified  under  the 
heads  of  Civil  List,  Foreign  Intercourse,  Military 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  Ill 

Establishment,  Indian  Department,  Naval,  etc. 
finally  a  call  was  made  for  a  statement  of  the 
annual  appropriations  and  the  applications  of  them 
by  the  Treasury.  The  object  of  Mr.  Gallatin  was  to 
establish  the  expenses  of  the  government  in  each 
department  of  service  on  a  permanent  footing  for 
which  annual  appropriations  should  be  made,  and 
for  any  extraordinary  expenditure  to  insist  on  a 
special  appropriation  for  the  stated  object  and  none 
other.  By  keeping  constantly  before  the  House 
this  distinction  between  the  permanent  fund  and 
temporary  exigencies,  he  accustomed  it  to  take  a 
practical  business  view  of  its  legislative  duties,  and 
the  people  to  understand  the  principles  he  endeav 
ored  to  apply. 

In  a  debate  at  the  beginning  of  the  session, 
on  a  bill  for  establishing  trading  houses  with  the 
Indians,  Mr.  Gallatin  showed  his  hand  by  declar 
ing  that  he  would  not  consent  to  appropriate  any 
part  of  the  war  funds  for  the  scheme  ;  nor,  in 
view  of  the  need  of  additional  permanent  funds 
for  the  discharge  of  the  public  debt,  would  he 
vote  for  the  bill  at  all,  unless  there  was  to  be  a 
reduction  in  the  expense  of  the  military  establish 
ment,  and  he  would  not  be  diverted  from  his  pur 
pose  although  Mr.  Madison  advocated  the  bill 
because  of  its  extremely  benevolent  object.  The 
Federal  leaders  saw  clearly  to  what  this  doctrine 
would  bring  them,  and  met  it  in  the  beginning. 
The  first  struggle  occurred  when  the  appropria' 


112  ALBERT   GALLATIN. 

tions  for  the  service  of  1796  were  brought  before 
the  House.  Beginning  with  a  discussion  upon  the 
salaries  of  the  officers  of  the  mint,  the  debate  at 
once  passed  to  the  principle  of  appropriations. 
The  Federalists  insisted  that  a  discussion  of  the 
merits  of  establishments  was  not  in  order  when 
the  appropriations  were  under  consideration  : 
that  the  House  ought  not,  by  withholding  appro 
priations,  to  destroy  establishments  formed  by  the 
whole  Legislature,  that  is  by  the  Senate  and 
House  ;  that  the  House  should  vote  for  the  appro 
priations  agreeably  to  the  laws  already  made.  This 
view  was  sanctioned  by  practice.  Mr.  Gallatin 
immediately  opposed  this  as  an  alarming  and 
dangerous  principle.  He  insisted  that  there  was  a 
certain  discretionary  power  in  the  House  to  appro 
priate  or  not  to  appropriate  for  any  object  what 
ever,  whether  that  object  were  authorized  or  not. 
It  was  a  power  vested  in  the  House  for  the  pur 
pose  of  checking  the  other  branches  of  government 
whenever  necessary.  He  claimed  that  this  power 
was  shown  in  the  making  of  yearly  instead  of  per 
manent  appropriations  for  the  civil  list  and  mili 
tary  establishments,  yet  when  the  House  desired 
to  strengthen  public  credit  it  had  rendered  the 
appropriation  for  those  objects  permanent  and  not 
yearly.  It  was,  therefore,  "  contradictory  to  sup 
pose  that  the  House  was  bound  to  do  a  certain  act 
at  the  same  time  that  they  were  exercising  the 
discretionary  power  of  voting  upon  it."  The  de« 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  113 

bate  determined  nothing,  but  it  is  of  interest  as  j 
the  first  declaration  in  Congress  of  the  supremacy/ 
of  the  House  of  Representatives. 

The  great  debate  which,  from  the  principles  in-  * 
volved  in  it  as  well  as  the  argument  and  oratory 
with  which  they  were  discussed,  made  this  session 
of  the  House  famous,  was  on  the  treaty  with 
Great  Britain.  This  was  the  first  foreign  treaty 
made  since  the  establishment  of  the  Constitution. 
The  treaty  was  sent  in  to  the  House  "  for  the  infor 
mation  of  Congress,"  by  the  President,  on  March 
1st,  with  notice  of  its  ratification  at  London  in 
October.  The  next  day  Mr.  Edward  Livingston 
moved  that  the  President  be  requested  to  send  in 
a  copy  of  the  instructions  to  the  Minister  of  the 
United  States  who  negotiated  the  treaty,  together 
with  the  correspondence  and  other  documents.  A 
few  days  later  he  amended  his  resolution  by  adding 
an  exception  of  such  of  said  papers  as  any  existing 
negotiations  rendered  improper  to  disclose.  The 
Senate  in  its  ratification  of  the  treaty  suspended 
the  operation  of  the  clause  regulating  the  trade 
with  the  West  Indies,  on  which  Great  Britain 
still  imposed  the  old  colonial  restriction,  and  rec 
ommended  the  President  to  open  negotiations  on 
this  subject ;  and  in  fact  such  negotiations  were  in 
progress.  The  discussion  was  opened  on  the  Fed 
eral  side  by  a  request  to  the  gentlemen  in  favor  of 
the  call  to  give  their  reasons.  Mr.  Gallatin  sup 
ported  the  resolution,  and  expressed  surprise  at 


114  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

any  objection,  considering  that  the  exception  of 
the  mover  rendered  the  resolution  of  itself  unex 
ceptionable.  The  President  had  not  informed  tbe 
House  of  the  reasons  upon  which  the  treaty  was 
based.  If  he  did  not  think  proper  to  give  the  in 
formation  sought  for,  he  would  say  so  to  them.  A 
question  might  arise  whether  the  House  should  get 
at  those  secrets  even  if  the  President  refused  the 
request,  but  that  was  not  the  present  question.  In 
reply  to  Mr.  Murray,  who  asserted  that  the  treaty 
was  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  and  that  there 
was  no  discretionary  power  in  the  House  except  on 
the  question  of  its  constitutionality,  Mr.  Gallatin 
said  that  Congress  possessed  the  power  of  regulat 
ing  trade,  —  perhaps  the  treaty  -  making  power 
clashed  with  that,  —  and  concluded  by  observing 
that  the  House  was  the  grand  inquest  of  the  nation, 
and  that  it  had  the  right  to  call  for  papers  on  which 
to  ground  an  impeachment.  At  present  he  did  not 
contemplate  an  exercise  of  that  right.  Mr.  Madi 
son  said  it  was  now  to  be  decided  whether  the 
general  power  of  making  treaties  supersedes  the 
powers  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  particu 
larly  specified  in  the  Constitution,  so  as  to  give  to 
the  Executive  all  deliberative  will  and  leave  the 
House  only  an  executive  and  ministerial  instru 
mental  agency;  and  he  proposed  to  amend  the 
resolution  so  as  to  read,  "  except  so  much  of  said 
papers  as  in  his  (the  President's)  judgment  it  may 
be  inconsistent  with  the  interest  of  the  United 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  115 

States  at  this  time  to  disclose."     But  Ms  motion 
was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  47  nays  to  37  yeas. 

The  discussion  being  resumed  in  committee  of 
the  whole,  the  expressions  of  opinion  were  free 
on  both  sides,  but  so  moderate  that  one  of  the 
members  made  comment  on  the  calmness  and 
temper  of  the  discussion.  Nicholas  said  that,  if 
the  treaty  were  not  the  law  of  the  land,  the  Presi 
dent  should  be  impeached.  But  the  parts  of  the 
treaty  into  which  the  President  had  not  the  right 
to  enter,  he  could  not  make  law  by  proclamation. 
Swan  wick  supported  the  call  as  one  exercised  by 
the  House  of  Commons.  On  the  Federal  side, 
Harper  said  that  the  papers  were  not  necessary, 
and,  being  unnecessary,  the  demand  was  an  im 
proper  and  unconstitutional  interference  with  the 
executive  department.  If  he  thought  them  nec 
essary,  he  would  change  the  milk  and  water  style 
of  the  resolutions.  In  that  case  the  House  had  a 
right  to  them  and  he  had  no  idea  of  requesting  as 
a  favor  what  should  be  demanded  as  a  right.  Gal- 
latin,  he  said,  had  declared  that  it  was  a  request, 
but  that  in  case  of  refusal  it  might  be  considered 
whether  demand  should  not  be  made,  and  he 
charged  that  when,  at  the  time  the  motion  was 
made,  the  question  had  been  asked,  what  use  was  to 
be  made  of  the  papers,  Gallatin  did  not  and  could 
not  reply.  Mr.  Gallatin  answered  that  whether 
the  House  had  a  discretionary  power,  or  whether 
it  was  bound  by  the  instrument,  there  was  no  im- 


116  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

propriety  in  calling  for  the  papers.  He  hoped  to 
have  avoided  the  constitutional  question  in  the 
motion,  but  as  the  gentlemen  had  come  forward 
on  that  ground,  he  had  no  objection  to  rest  the 
decision  of  the  constitutional  power  of  Congress 
on  the  fate  of  the  present  question.  He  would 
therefore  state  that  the  House  had  a  right  to  ask 
for  the  papers. 

The  constitutional  question  being  thus  squarely 
introduced,  Mr.  Gallatin  made  an  elaborate 
speech,  which,  from  its  conciseness  in  statement, 
strength  of  argument,  and  wealth  of  citations  of 
authority,  was,  to  say  the  least,  inferior  to  no 
other  of  those  drawn  out  in  this  memorable 
struggle.  In  its  course  he  compared  the  opinion 
of  those  who  had  opposed  the  resolution  to  the 
saying  of  an  English  bishop,  that  the  people  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  law  but  to  obey  it,  and 
likened  their  conduct  to  the  servile  obedience  of  a 
Parliament  of  Paris  under  the  old  order  of  things. 
He  concluded  with  the  hope  that  the  dangerous 
doctrine,  that  the  representatives  of  the  people 
have  not  the  right  to  consult  their  discretion  when 
about  exercising  powers  delegated  by  the  Consti 
tution,  would  receive  its  death-blow.  Griswold  re 
plied  in  what  by  common  consent  was  the  strongest 
argument  on  the  Federal  side.  The  call,  at  first 
view  simple,  had,  he  said,  become  a  grave  mat 
ter.  The  gist  of  his  objection  to  it  was  that  the 
people  in  their  Constitution  had  made  the  treaty 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  117 

power  paramount  to  the  legislative,  and  had  de 
posited  that  power  with  the  President  and  Senate. 

Mr.  Madison  again  rose  to  the  constitutional 
question.  He  said  that,  if  the  passages  of  the  Con 
stitution  be  taken  literally,  they  must  clash.  The 
word  supreme,  as  applied  to  treaties,  meant  as 
over  the  state  Constitutions,  and  not  over  the  Con 
stitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States.  He  sup 
ported  Mr.  Gallatin's  view  of  the  congressional 
power  as  cooperative  with  the  treaty  power.  A 
construction  which  made  the  treaty  power  omnip 
otent  he  thought  utterly  inadmissible  in  a  con 
stitution  marked  throughout  with  limitations  and 
checks. 

Mr.  Gallatin  again  claimed  the  attention  of  the 
House,  as  the  original  question  of  a  call  for  papers 
had  resolved  itself  into  a  discussion  on  the  treaty- 
making  power.  In  the  treaty  of  peace  of  1783 
there  were  three  articles  which  might  be  supposed 
to  interfere  with  the  legislative  powers  of  the  sev 
eral  States :  1st,  that  which  related  to  the  payment 
of  debts ;  2d,  the  provision  for  no  future  confisca 
tions  ;  3d,  the  restitution  of  estates  already  confis 
cated.  The  first  could  not  be  denied.  "  Those,'* 
he  said,  "  might  be  branded  with  the  epithet  of 
disorganizes,  who  threatened  a  dissolution  of  the 
Union  in  case  the  measures  they  dictated  were  not 
obeyed  ;  and  he  knew,  although  he  did  not  ascribe 
it  to  any  member  of  the  House,  that  men  high  in 
office  anc^  reputation  had  industriously  spread  an 


118  ALBERT   GALL  AT  IN. 

alarm  that  the  Union  would  be  dissolved  if  the 
present  motion  was  carried."  He  took  the  ground 
that  a  treaty  is  not  valid,  and  does  not  bind  the 
nation  as  such,  till  it  has  received  the  sanction  of 
the  House  of  Representatives.  Mr.  Harper  closed 
the  argument  on  the  Federal  side.  On  March  24 
the  resolution  calling  for  the  papers  was  carried  by 
a  vote  of  yeas  62,  nays  37,  absent  5,  the  Speaker 
1  (105).  Livingston  and  Gallatin  were  appointed 
to  present  the  request  to  the  President. 

On  March  30  the  President  returned  answer  to 
the  effect  that  he  considered  it  a  dangerous  prece 
dent  to  admit  this  right  in  the  House ;  that  the 
assent  of  the  House  was  not  necessary  to  the  va 
lidity  of  a  treaty ;  and  he  absolutely  refused  com 
pliance  with  the  request.  The  letter  of  instruc 
tions  to  Jay  would  bear  the  closest  examination, 
but  the  cabinet  scorned  to  take  shelter  behind  it, 
and  it  was  on  their  recommendation  that  the  Pres 
ident's  refusal  was  explicit.  This  message,  in  spite 
of  the  opposition  of  the  Federalists,  was  referred, 
by  a  vote  of  55  yeas  to  37  nays,  to  the  committee 
of  the  whole.  This  reference  involved  debate.  In 
his  opposition  to  this  motion,  Mr.  Harper  said 
that  the  motives  of  the  friends  of  the  resolution 
had  been  avowed  by  the  "  gentleman  who  led  the 
business,  from  Pennsylvania  ; "  whereby  it  ap 
pears  that  Mr.  Gallatin  led  the  Republicans  in 
the  first  debate.  During  this  his  first  session  he 
shared  this  distinction  with  Mr.  Madison.  At  the 


MEMBER   OF  CONGRESS.  119 

next  he  became  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the 
Republican  party. 

On  April  3  the  debate  was  resumed.  This 
second  debate  was  led  by  Mr.  Madison,  who  con 
sidered  two  points  :  1st,  the  application  for  pa 
pers  ;  2d,  the  constitutional  rights  of  Congress. 
His  argument  was  of  course  calm  and  dispassion 
ate  after  his  usual  manner.  The  contest  ended  on 
April  7,  with  the  adoption  of  two  resolutions  :  1st, 
that  the  power  of  making  treaties  is  exclusively 
with  the  President  and  Senate,  and  the  House  do 
not  claim  an  agency  in  making  them,  or  ratifying 
them  when  made  ;  2d,  that  when  made  a  treaty 
must  depend  for  the  execution  of  its  stipulations 
on  a  law  or  laws  to  be  passed  by  Congress ;  and 
the  House  have  a  right  to  deliberate  and  deter 
mine  the  expediency  or  inexpediency  of  carrying 
treaties  into  effect.  These  resolutions  were  car 
ried  by  a  vote  of  63  to  27. 

There  was  now  a  truce  of  a  few  days.  In  the 
meanwhile  the  country  was  agitated  to  an  extent 
which,  if  words  mean  anything,  really  threatened 
an  attempt  at  dissolution  of  the  Union,  if  not  civil 
war  itself.  The  objections  on  the  part  of  the  Re 
publicans  were  to  the  treaty  as  a  whole.  Their 
sympathies  were  with  France  in  her  struggle  for 
liberty  and  democratic  institutions  and  against 
England,  and  their  real  and  proper  ground  of  an 
tipathy  to  the  instrument  lay  in  its  concession  of 
the  right  of  capture  of  French  property  in  Amer- 


120  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

ican  vessels,  whilst  the  treaty  with  France  forbade 
her  to  seize  British  property  in  American  vessels. 
The  objections  in  detail  had  been  formulated  at 
the  Boston  public  meeting  the  year  before.  The 
commercial  cities  were  disturbed  by  the  interfer 
ence  with  the  carrying  trade ;  the  entire  coast,  by 
the  search  of  vessels  and  the  impressment  of  sea 
men  ;  the  agricultural  regions,  by  the  closing  of 
the  outlet  for  their  surplus  product ;  the  upland 
districts,  by  the  stoppage  of  the  export  of  timber. 
But  the  country  was  without  a  navy,  was  ill  pre 
pared  for  war,  and  the  security  of  the  frontier 
was  involved  in  the  restoration  of  the  posts  still 
held  by  the  British. 

The  political  situation  was  uncertain  if  not 
absolutely  menacing.  The  threats  of  disunion 
were  by  no  means  vague.  The  Pendleton  Society 
in  Virginia  had  passed  secession  resolutions,  and 
a  similar  disposition  appeared  in  other  States. 
While  the  treaty  was  condemned  in  the  United 
States,  British  statesmen  were  not  of  one  opinion 
as  to  the  advantages  they  had  gained  by  Gren- 
ville's  diplomacy.  Jay's  desire,  expressed  to  Ran 
dolph,  "  to  manage  so  that  in  case  of  wars  our 
people  should  be  united  and  those  of  England  di 
vided,"  was  not  wholly  disappointed.  And  there 
is  on  record  the  expression  of  Lord  Sheffield,  when 
he  heard  of  the  rupture  in  1812,  "  We  have  now 
a  complete  opportunity  of  getting  rid  of  that  most 
impolitic  treaty  of  1794,  when  Lord  Grenville  was 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  121 

so  perfectly  duped  by  Jay."  l  Washington's  rati 
fication  of  the  treaty  went  far  to  correct  the  hasty 
judgment  of  the  people,  and  to  reconcile  them  to 
it  as  a  choice  of  evils.  Supported  by  this  modified 
tone  of  public  opinion,  the  Federalists  determined 
to  press  the  necessary  appropriation  bills  for  carry 
ing  the  treaties  into  effect.  Besides  the  Jay  treaty 
there  were  also  before  the  House  the  Wayne 
treaty  with  the  Indians,  the  Pinckney  treaty 
with  Spain,  and  the  treaty  with  Algiers.  With 
these  three  the  House  was  entirely  content,  and 
the  country  was  impatient  for  their  immediate 
operation.  Wayne's  treaty  satisfied  the  inhabit 
ants  on  the  frontier.  The  settlers  along  the  Ohio, 
among  whom  was  Gallatin's  constituency,  were 
eager  to  avail  themselves  of  the  privileges  granted 
by  that  of  Pinckney,  which  was  a  triumph  of  di 
plomacy  ;  and  all  America,  while  ready  to  beard 
the  British  lion,  seems  to  have  been  in  terror  of 
the  Dey  of  Algiers.  Mr.  Sedgwick  offered  a  reso 
lution  providing  for  the  execution  of  the  four  trea 
ties.  Mr.  Gallatin  insisted  on  and  received  a  sep 
arate  consideration  of  each.  That  with  Great 
Britain  was  reserved  till  the  rest  were  disposed 
of.  It  was  taken  up  on  April  14.  Mr.  Madison 
opened  the  debate.  He  objected  to  the  treaty  as 
wanting  in  real  reciprocity  ;  2d,  in  insufficiency 
of  its  provisions  as  to  the  rights  of  neutrals ;  3d, 

1  Lord  Sheffield  to  Mr.  Abbott,  November  6, 1812.     Correspond 
ence  of  Lord  Colchester,  ii.  409. 


122  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

because  of  its  commercial  restrictions.  Other  Re 
publican  leaders  followed,  making  strong  points  of 
the  position  in  which  the  treaty  placed  the  United 
States  with  regard  to  France,  to  whom  it  was 
bound  by  a  treaty  of  commercial  alliance,  which 
was  a  part  of  the  contract  of  aid  in  the  Revolution 
ary  War;  and  also  of  the  possible  injustice  which 
would  befall  American  claimants  in  the  British 
courts  of  admiralty. 

The  Federalists  clung  to  their  ground,  defended 
the  treaty  as  the  best  attainable,  and  held  up  as  the 
alternative  a  war,  for  which  the  refusal  of  the  Re 
publicans  to  support  the  military  establishment 
and  build  up  a  navy  left  the  country  unprepared. 
In  justice  to  Jay,  his  significant  words  to  Ran 
dolph,  while  doubtful  of  success  in  his  negotiation, 
should  be  remembered  :  "  Let  us  hope  for  the 
best  and  prepare  for  the  worst."  To  the  red  flag 
which  the  Federalists  held  up,  Mr.  Gallatin  re 
plied,  accepting  the  consequences  of  war  if  it 
should  come,  and  gave  voice  to  the  extreme  dis 
satisfaction  of  the  Virginia  radicals  with  Jay  and 
the  negotiation.  He  charged  that  the  cry  of  war 
and  threats  of  a  dissolution  of  the  government 
were  designed  for  an  impression  on  the  timidity 
of  the  House.  "It  was  through  the  fear  of  being 
involved  in  a  war  that  the  negotiation  with  Great 
Britain  had  originated;  under  the  impression  of 
fear  the  treaty  had  been  negotiated  and  signed ;  a 
fear  of  the  same  danger,  that  of  war,  had  pro* 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  123 

moted  its  ratification ;  and  now  every  imaginary 
mischief  which  could  alarm  our  fears  was  conjured 
up  in  order  to  deprive  us  of  that  discretion  which 
this  House  thought  they  had  a  right  to  exercise, 
and  in  order  to  force  us  to  carry  the  treaty  into 
effect."  He  insisted  on  the  important  principle 
that  '  free  ships  make  free  goods,'  and  complained 
of  its  abandonment  by  the  negotiators. 

In  a  reply  to  this  attack  upon  Jay,  whose  whole 
life  was  a  refutation  of  the  charge  of  personal 
or  moral  timidity,  Mr.  Tracy  passed  the  limits  of 
parliamentary  courtesy.  "  The  people,"  he  said, 
"  where  he  was  most  acquainted,  whatever  might 
be  the  character  of  other  parts  of  the  Union,  were 
not  of  the  stamp  to  cry  hosannah  to-day  and  crucify 
to-morrow ;  they  will  not  dance  around  a  whiskey 
pole  to-day  and  curse  their  government,  and  upon 
hearing  of  a  military  force  sneak  into  a  swamp. 
No,"  said  he,  "  my  immediate  constituents,  whom 
I  very  well  know,  understand  their  rights  and  will 
defend  them,  and  if  they  find  the  government  will 
not  protect  them,  they  will  attempt  at  least  to 
protect  themselves ;  "  and  he  concluded,  "  I  cannot 
be  thankful  to  that  gentleman  for  coining  all  the 
way  from  Geneva  to  give  Americans  a  character 
for  pusillanimity."  He  held  it  madness  to  suppose 
that  if  the  treaty  were  defeated  war  could  be 
avoided.  Called  to  order,  he  said  that  he  might 
have  been  too  personal,  and  asked  pardon  of  the 
gentleman  and  of  the  House. 


124  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

The  brilliant  crown  of  the  debate  was  the  im 
passioned  speech  of  Fisher  Ames,  the  impression 
of  which  upon  the  House  and  the  crowded  gal 
lery  is  one  of  the  traditions  of  American  oratory. 
The  scene,  as  it  has  been  handed  down  to  us, 
resembles,  in  all  save  its  close,  that  which  Par 
liament  presented  when  Chatham  made  his  last 
and  dying  appeal.  Like  the  great  earl,  Ames  rose 
pale  and  trembling  from  illness  to  address  a  House 
angry  and  divided,  and,  like  him  also,  his  voice 
was  raised  for  peace.  Defending  himself  and  the 
Federal  party  against  the  charge  of  being  in  Eng 
lish  interest,  he  said,  "  Britain  has  no  influence, 
and  can  have  none.  She  has  enough  —  and  God 
forbid  she  ever  should  have  more.  France,  pos 
sessed  of  popular  enthusiasm,  of  party  attach 
ments,  has  had  and  still  has  too  much  influence  on 
our  politics,  —  any  foreign  influence  is  too  much 
and  ought  to  be  destroyed.  I  detest  the  man 
and  disdain  the  spirit  that  can  ever  bend  to  a  mean 
subserviency  to  the  views  of  any  nation.  It  is 
enough  to  be  American.  That  character  compre 
hends  our  duties  and  ought  to  engross  our  attach 
ments."  Considering  the  probable  influence  on  the 
Indian  tribes  of  the  rejection  of  the  treaty,  he  said, 
"  By  rejecting  the  Posts  we  light  the  savage  fires, 
we  bind  the  victims.  ...  I  can  fancy  that  I  listen 
to  the  yells  of  savage  vengeance  and  shrieks  of  tor 
ture.  Already  they  seem  to  sigh  in  the  west  wind, 
—  already  they  mingle  with  every  echo  from  the 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  125 

mountains."  His  closing  words  again  bring  Chat 
ham  to  mind.  "  Yet  I  have  perhaps  as  little  per 
sonal  interest  in  the  event  as  any  one  here.  There 
is,  I  believe,  no  member  who  will  not  think  his 
chance  to  be  a  witness  of  the  consequences  greater 
than  mine.  If,  however,  the  vote  should  pass  to 
reject,  and  a  spirit  should  rise,  as  rise  it  will,  with 
the  public  disorders  to  make  confusion  worse  con 
founded,  even  I,  slender  and  almost  broken  as  my 
hold  upon  life  is,  may  outlive  the  government  and 
Constitution  of  my  country."  This  appeal,  sup 
ported  by  the  petitions  and  letters  which  poured 
in  upon  the  House,  left  no  doubt  of  the  result.  An 
adjournment  was  carried,  but  the  speech  was  de 
cisive.  The  next  day,  April  29,  it  was  resolved  to 
be  expedient  to  make  the  necessary  appropriations 
to  carry  the  treaty  into  effect.  The  vote  stood  49 
ayes  to  49  nays,  and  was  decided  in  the  affirmative 
by  Muhlenberg,  who  was  in  the  chair.  But  the 
House  would  not  be  satisfied  without  an  expression 
of  condemnation  of  the  instrument.  On  April  30 
it  was  resolved  that  in  the  opinion  of  the  House 
the  treaty  was  objectionable.  __ 

While  Mr.  Gallatin  in  this  debate  rose  to  the 
highest  rank  of  statesmanship,  he  showed  an 
<equal  mastery  of  other  important  subjects  which 
engaged  the  attention  of  the  House  during  the 
session.  He  was  earnest  for  the  protection  of  the 
frontier,  but  ha^fno  good  opinion  of  the  Indians. 
u  Twelve  Years  had  nassed,"  he  said,  "  since  the 


126  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

peace  of  1783 ;  ever  since  that  time  he  had  lived 
on  the  frontier  of  Pennsylvania.  Not  a  year  of  this 
period  had  passed,  whether  at  war  or  peace,  that 
some  murders  had  not  been  committed  by  the 
Indians,  and  yet  not  an  act  of  invasion  or  pro 
vocation  by  the  inhabitants."  In  the  matter  of 
impressment  of  American  seamen,  he  urged  the 
lodging  of  sufficient  power  in  the  Executive.  Men 
had  been  impressed,  and  he  held  it  to  be  the  duty 
of  the  House  to  take  notice  of  it  by  war  or  nego 
tiation.  In  the  establishment  of  land  offices  for 
the  sale  of  the  western  lands  he  brought  to  bear 
upon  legislation  his  practical  experience.  He 
urged  that  the  tracts  for  sale  be  divided,  and  dis 
tinctions  be  made  between  large  purchasers  and 
actual  settlers  —  proposing  that  the  large  tracts  be 
sold  at  the  seat  of  government,  and  the  small  on 
the  territory  itself.  He  instanced  the  fact  that  in 
1792  all  the  land  west  of  the  Ohio  was  disposed  of 
at  Is.  Qd.  the  acre,  and  a  week  afterwards  was  re 
sold  at  $1.50,  so  that  the  money  which  should 
have  gone  into  the  treasury  went  to  the  pockets  of 
speculators.  He  also  suggested  that  the  proceeds 
of  the  sales  should  be  a  fund  to  pay  the  public 
debt,  and  that  the  public  stock  should  always  be 
received  at  its  value  in  payment  for  land ;  a  plan 
by  which  the  land  would  be  brought  directly  to 
the  payment  of  the  debt,  as  foreigners  would 
gladly  exchange  the  money  obligations  of  the  gov 
ernment  for  land.  On  the  question  of  taxation 


MEMBER   OF  CONGRESS.  127 

he  declared  himself  in  favor  of  direct  taxes,  and 
held  that  a  tax  on  houses  and  lands  could  be  levied 
without  difficulty.  He  would  satisfy  the  people 
that  it  was  to  pay  off  the  public  debt,  which  he 
held  to  be  a  public  curse.  He  supported  the  ex 
cise  duty  on  stills  under  regulations  which  would 
avoid  the  watching  of  persons  and  houses  and  in 
spection  by  officers,  and  proposed  that  licenses  be 
granted  for  the  time  applied  for. 

The  military  establishment  he  opposed  in  every 
way,  attacked  the  principle  on  which  it  was  based, 
and  fought  every  appropriation  in  detail,  from  the 
pay  of  a  major-general  to  the  cost  of  uniforms  for 
the  private  soldiers.  He  was  not  afraid  of  the 
army,  he  said.  He  did  not  think  that  it  was  nec 
essary  for  the  support  of  the  government  or  dan 
gerous  to  the  liberties  of  the  people,  but  it  cost  six 
hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year,  which  was  a  sum 
of  consequence  in  the  condition  of  the  finances. 

The  navy  found  no  more  favor  in  his  eyes.  He 
denied  that  fleets  were  necessary  to  protect  com 
merce.  He  called  upon  its  friends  to  show,  from 
the  history  of  every  nation  in  Europe  as  from  our 
own,  that  commerce  and  the  navy  had  gone  hand 
in  hand.  There  was  no  nation  except  Great  Brit 
ain,  he  said,  whose  navy  had  any  connection  with 
commerce.  Navies  were  instruments  of  power 
more  calculated  to  annoy  the  trade  of  other  na 
tions  than  to  protect  that  of  the  nations  to  which, 
they  belonged.  The  price  England  had  paid  for 


128  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

her  navy  was  a  debt  of  three  hundred  millions  of 
pounds  sterling.  He  opposed  appropriations  even 
for  the  three  frigates,  United  States,  Constitution, 
and  Constellation,  —  the  construction  of  which  had 
been  ordered,  —  the  germs  of  that  navy  which 
was  later  to  set  his  theory  at  naught,  redeem  the 
honor  of  the  flag,  protect  our  commerce,  and  re 
lease  the  country  and  the  civilized  world  from 
ignominious  tribute  to  the  Mediterranean  pirates, 
who  were  propitated  in  this  very  session  only  at 
the  cost  of  a  million  of  dollars  to  the  treasury  of 
the  United  States,  and  by  the  gift  of  a  frigate. 

In  the  debate  over  the  payment  of  the  sum  of 
five  millions,  which  the  United  States  Bank  had 
demanded  from  the  government,  the  greatest  part 
of  which  had  been  advanced  on  account  of  appro 
priations,  he  lamented  the  necessity,  but  urged  the 
liquidation.  This  was  the  occasion  of  another 
personal  encounter.  In  reply  to  a  charge  of  Gal- 
latin  that  the  Federalists  were  in  favor  of  debt, 
Sedgwick  alluded  to  Gallatin's  part  in  the  Whiskey 
Insurrection,  and  said  that  none  of  those  gentle 
men  whom  Gallatin  had  charged  with  "an  object 
to  perpetuate  and  increase  the  public  debt "  had 
been  known  to  have  combined  "  in  every  measure 
which  might  obstruct  the  operation  of  law,"  nor 
had  declared  to  the  world  "  that  the  men  who 
would  accept  of  the  offices  to  perform  the  neces 
sary  functions  of  government  were  lost  to  every 
sense  of  virtue;"  "that  from  them  was  to  be 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  129 

withheld  every  comfort  of  life  which  depended  on 
those  duties  which  as  men  and  fellow-citizens  we 
owe  to  each  other.  If,"  he  said,  "  the  gentlemen 
had  been  guilty  of  such  nefarious  practices,  there 
would  have  been  a  sound  foundation  for  the 
charge  brought  against  them."  Gallatin  made  no 
reply.  This  was  the  one  political  sin  he  had  ac 
knowledged.  His  silence  was  his  expiation. 

The  Treasury  Department  and  its  control,  past 
and  present,  was  the  object  of  his  unceasing  crit 
icism.  In  April,  1796,  he  said,  "  The  situation 
of  the  gentleman  at  the  head  of  the  department 
[Wolcott]  was  doubtless  delicate  and  unpleasant; 
it  was  the  more  so  when  compared  with  that  of 
his  predecessor  [Hamilton].  Both  indeed  had 
the  same  power  to  borrow  money  when  neces 
sary;  but  that  power,  which  was  efficient  in  the 
hands  of  the  late  Secretary  and  liberally  enough 
used  by  him,  was  become  useless  at  present.  He 
wished  the  present  Secretary  to  be  extricated 
from  his  present  difficulty.  Nothing  could  be 
more  painful  than  to  be  at  the  head  of  that 
department  with  an  empty  treasury,  a  revenue 
inadequate  to  the  expenses,  and  no  means  to 
borrow."  Nevertheless  he  feared  that  if  it  were 
declared  that  the  payment  of  the  debt  incurred  by 
themselves  were  to  be  postponed  till  the  present 
generation  were  over,  it  might  well  be  expected 
that  the  principle  thus  adopted  by  them  would  be 
cherished,  that  succeeding  legislatures  and  admin- 


130  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

istrations  would  follow  in  their  steps,  and  that 
they  were  laying  the  foundations  of  that  national 
curse,  —  a  growing  and  perpetual  debt. 

On  the  last  day  of  the  session  W.  Smith  had 
challenged  the  correctness  of  Gallatin's  charge 
that  there  had  been  an  increase  of  the  public  debt 
by  five  millions  under  the  present  government,  and 
claimed  that  there  were  errors  in  Gallatin's  state 
ment  of  more  than  four  and  a  half  millions.  Gal- 
latin  defended  his  figures.  At  this  day  it  is  impos 
sible  to  determine  the  merits  of  this  dispute. 

One  incident  of  this  session  deserves  mention  as 
showing  the  distaste  of  Gallatin  for  anything  like 
personal  compliment,  stimulated  in  this  instance, 
perhaps,  by  his  sense  of  Washington's  dislike  to 
himself.  It  had  been  the  habit  of  the  House  since 
the  commencement  of  the  government,  to  adjourn 
for  a  time  on  February  22,  Washington's  birth 
day,  that  members  might  pay  their  respects  to  tho 
President.  When  the  motion  was  made  that  the 
House  adjourn  for  half  an  hour,  the  Republicans 
objected,  and  Gallatin,  nothing  loath  to  "  bell  the 
cat,"  moved  that  the  words  "  half  an  hour  "  be 
struck  out.  His  amendment  was  lost  without  a  di 
vision.  The  motion  to  adjourn  was  then  put  and 
lost  by  a  vote  of  50  nays  to  38  ayes.  The  House 
waited  on  the  President  at  the  close  of  the  busi 
ness  of  the  day.  On  June  1  closed  this  long  and 
memorable  session,  in  which  the  assaults  of  the 
Republicans  upon  the  administration  were  so  per. 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  131 

sistent  and  embarrassing  as  to  justify  Wolcott's 
private  note  to  Hamilton,  April  29,  1796,  that 
"  unless  a  radical  change  oc  opinion  can  be  effected 
in  the  Southern  States,  the  existing  establishments 
will  not  last  eighteen  months.  The  influence  of 
Messrs.  Gallatin,  Madison,  and  Jefferson  must  be 
diminished,  or  the  public  affairs  will  be  brought  to 
a  stand."  Gallatin  seems  to  have  had  some  doubts 
as  to  his  reelection.  As  he  did  not  reside  in  the 
Washington  and  Allegheny  district,  his  name  was 
not  mentioned,  and,  to  use  his  own  words,  he  ex 
pected  to  "  be  gently  dropped  without  the  parade 
of  a  resignation."  In  his  distaste  at  separation 
from  his  wife,  the  desire  to  abandon  public  life 
grew  upon  him.  But  personal  abuse  of  him  in 
the  newspapers  exasperating  his  friends,  he  was 
taken  up  again  in  October,  and  he  arrived  on  the 
scene,  he  says,  too  late  to  prevent  it.  He  had  no 
hope,  however,  of  success,  and  was  resolved  to  re 
sign  a  seat  to  which  he  was  in  every  way  indiffer 
ent.  "  Ambition,  love  of  power,"  he  wrote  to  his 
wife  on  October  16,  he  had  never  felt,  and  he 
added,  if  vanity  ever  made  one  of  the  ingredients 
which  impelled  him  to  take  an  active  part  in  pub 
lic  life,  it  had  for  many  years  altogether  vanished 
away.  He  was  nevertheless  reflected  by  the  dis 
trict  he  had  represented. 

The  second  session  of  the  fourth  Congress  be 
gan  on  December  5,  1796.    At  the  beginning  of 


132  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

this  session  Mr.  Gallatin  took  the  reins  of  the  Re» 
publican  party,  and  held  them  till  its  close.  The 
position  of  the  Federalists  had  been  strengthened 
before  the  country  by  the  energy  of  Washington, 
who,  impatient  of  the  delays  which  Great  Britain 
opposed  to  the  evacuation  of  the  posts,  marched 
troops  to  the  frontier  and  obtained  their  surrender. 
Adet,  the  new  French  minister,  had  dashed  the 
feeling  of  attachment  for  France  by  his  impudent 
notice  to  the  President  that  the  dissatisfaction 
of  France  would  last  until  the  Executive  of  the 
United  States  should  return  to  sentiments  and 
measures  more  conformable  to  the  interests  and 
friendships  of  the  two  nations.  In  September 
Washington  issued  his  Farewell  Address,  in  which 
he  used  the  famous  warning  against  foreign  com 
plications,  which,  approved  by  the  country,  has 
since  remained  its  policy;  but  neither  the  pros 
pect  of  his  final  withdrawal  from  the  political  and 
official  field,  nor  the  advice  of  Jefferson  to  mod 
erate  their  zeal,  availed  to  calm  the  bitterness  of 
the  ultra  Republicans  in  the  House. 

The  struggle  over  the  answer  to  the  President's 
message,  which  Fisher  Ames  on  this  occasion  re 
ported,  was  again  renewed.  An  effort  was  made 
to  strike  out  the  passages  complimentary  to  Wash 
ington  and  expressing  regret  at  his  approaching 
retirement.  Giles,  who  made  the  motion,  went  so 
far  as  to  say  that  he  '  wished  him  to  retire,  and 
that  this  was  the  moment  for  his  retirement,  that 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS  133 

the  government  could  do  very  well  without  him, 
and  that  he  would  enjoy  more  happiness  in  his  re 
tirement  than  he  possibly  could  in  his  present  sit 
uation.'  For  his  part  he  did  not  consider  Wash 
ington's  administration  either  "wise  or  firm,"  as 
the  address  said.  Gallatin  made  a  distinction  be 
tween  the  administration  and  the  legislature,  and 
in  lieu  of  the  words,  wise,  firm,  and  patriotic  ad 
ministration,  proposed  to  address  the  compliment 
directly  to  the  wisdom,  firmness,  and  patriotism  of 
Washington.  But  Ames  defended  his  report,  and 
it  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  67  to  12.  Gallatin 
voted  with  the  majority,  but  Livingston,  Giles, 
and  Macon  held  out  with  the  small  band  of  dis 
affected,  among  whom  it  is  amusing  also  to  find 
Andrew  Jackson,  who  took  his  seat  at  this  Con 
gress  to  represent  Tennessee,  which  had  been  ad 
mitted  as  a  State  at  the  last  session.1 

The  indebtedness  of  the  States  to  the  general 
government,  in  the  old  balance  sheet,  on  the  pay 
ment  of  which  Gallatin  insisted,  was  a  subject  of 
difference  between  the  Senate  and  the  House. 
Gallatin  was  appointed  chairman  of  the  committee 
of  conference  on  the  part  of  the  House.  The  re 
duction  of  the  military  establishment,  which  he 

1  Gallatin  later  described  Jackson  as  he  first  saw  him  in  his  seat 
in  the  House :  "  A  tall,  lank,  uncouth  looking  individual,  with  long 
locks  of  hair  hanging  over  his  brows  and  face,  while  a  queue  hung 
down  his  back  tied  in  an  eelskin.  The  dress  of  this  individual 
was  singular,  his  manners  and  deportment  that  of  a  backwoods- 
man/'  Bartlett's  Reminiscences  of  Gallatin, 


134  ALBERT  GALLAT1N. 

wished  to  bring  down  to  the  footing  of  1792,  was 
again  insisted  upon.  Gallatin  here  ingeniously 
argued  against  the  necessity  for  the  number  of 
men  proposed,  that  it  was  a  mere  matter  of  opin 
ion,  and  if  it  was  a  matter  of  opinion,  it  was  not 
strictly  necessary,  because  if  necessary  it  was  no 
longer  a  matter  of  opinion.  Naval  appropria 
tions  were  also  opposed,  on  the  ground  that  a  navy 
was  prejudicial  to  commerce.  Taxation,  direct 
and  indirect,  and  compensation  to  public  officers 
were  also  subjects  of  debate  at  this  session.  On 
the  subject  of  appropriations,  general  or  special, 
he  was  uncompromising.  He  charged  upon  the 
Treasury  Department  that  notwithstanding  the 
distribution  of  the  appropriations  they  thought 
themselves  at  liberty  to  take  money  from  an  item 
where  there  was  a  surplus  and  apply  it  to  another 
where  it  was  wanted.  To  check  such  irregularity, 
he  secured  the  passage  of  a  resolution  ordering 
that  "  the  several  sums  shall  be  solely  applied  to 
the  objects  for  which  they  are  respectively  appro 
priated,"  and  tacked  it  to  the  appropriation  bill. 
The  Senate  added  an  amendment  removing  the 
restriction,  but  Gallatin  and  Nicholas  insisting  on 
its  retention,  the  House  supported  them  by  a  vote 
of  52  to  36,  and  the  Senate  receded. 

Notwithstanding  the  apparent  enthusiasm  of  the 
House  in  the  early  part  of  the  session,  when  the 
tricolor  of  France,  a  present  from  the  French 
government  to  the  United  States,  was  sent  by 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  135 

Washington  to  Congress,  to  be  deposited  with 
the  archives  of  the  nation,  French  influence  was 
on  the  wane.  The  common  sense  of  the  country 
got  the  better  of  its  passion.  In  the  reaction  the 
Federalists  regained  the  popular  favor  for  a  sea 


son. 


Whatever  latent  sympathy  the  French  people 
may  have  had  for  America  as  the  nation  which  set 
the  example  of   resistance  to  arbitrary  rule,  the 
French  government  certainly  was    moved  by  no 
enthusiasm   for   abstract  rights.     Its  only  object 
was  to  check  the  power  of  their  ancient  enemy, 
and   deprive   it   of   its    empire  beyond   the   seas. 
Nevertheless,  France  did  contribute  materially  to 
American    success.      The    American    government 
and  people  acknowledged  the  value  of  her  assist 
ance,  and,  in  spite  of  the  prejudices  of  race,  there 
was  a  strong  bond  of  sympathy  between  the  two 
nations ;  and  when,  in  her  turn,  France,  in  1789, 
threw  off  the  feudal  yoke,  she  expected  and  she 
received  the  sympathy  of  America.     Beyond  this 
the  government  and   the   people   of   the   United 
States  could  not  and  would  not  go.     The  position 
of  France  in  the  winter  of  1796-97  was  peculiar. 
She  was   at  war  with    the  two   most  formidable 
powers    of    Europe,  —  Austria   and  England,  the 
one  the  mistress  of  Central  Europe,  the  other  su 
preme  ruler  of  the  seas.     The  United  States  was 
the  only  maritime  power  which  could  be  opposed 
to  Great  Britain.      The  French  government  de* 


136  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

termined  to  secure  American  aid  by  persuasion, 
if  possible,  otherwise  by  threat.  The  Directory 
indiscreetly  appealed  from  the  American  govern 
ment  to  the  American  people,  forgetting  that  in 
representative  governments  these  are  one.  Nor 
was  the  precedent  cited  in  defence  of  this  unusual 
proceeding  —  namely,  the  appeal  of  the  American 
colonists  to  the  people  of  England,  Ireland,  and 
Canada  to  take  part  in  the  struggle  against  the 
British  government  —  pertinent;  for  this  was  an 
appeal  to  sufferers  under  a  common  yoke. 

The  enthusiasm  awakened  in  France  by  the 
dramatic  reception  of  the  American  flag,  presented 
by  Monroe  to  the  French  Convention,  was  some 
what  dampened  by  the  cooler  manner  with  which 
Congress  received  the  tricolor,  and  was  entirely 
dashed  by  the  moderation  of  the  reply  of  the 
House  to  Washington's  message.  The  consent  of 
the  House  to  the  appropriations  to  carry  out  the 
Jay  Treaty  decided  the  French  Directory  to  sus 
pend  diplomatic  relations  with  the  United  States. 
The  marvellous  successes  of  Bonaparte  in  Italy 
over  the  Austrian  army  encouraged  Barras  to 
bolder  measures.  The  Directory  not  only  refused 
to  receive  Charles  C.  Pinckney,  the  new  American 
minister,  but  gave  him  formal  notice  to  retire  from 
French  territory,  and  even  threatened  him  with 
subjection  to  police  jurisdiction.  In  view  of  this 
alarming  situation,  President  Adams  convened 
Congress. 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  137 

The  first  session  of  the  fifth  Congress  began  at 
Philadelphia  on  Monday,  May  15,  1797.  Jona 
than  Dayton  was  reflected  speaker  of  the  House. 
Some  new  men  now  appeared  on  the  field  of  na 
tional  debate.  Samuel  Sewall  and  Harrison  Gray 
Otis  from  Massachusetts,  James  A.  Bayard  from 
Delaware,  and  John  Rutledge,  Jr.,  from  South 
Carolina.  Madison  and  Fisher  Ames  did  not  re 
turn,  and  their  loss  was  serious  to  their  respec 
tive  parties.  Madison  was  incontestably  the  finest 
reasoning  power,  and  Ames,  as  an  orator,  had  no 
equal  in  our  history  until  Webster  appeared  to 
dwarf  all  other  fame  beside  his  matchless  elo 
quence.  Parties  were  nicely  balanced,  the  nomi 
nal  majority  being  on  the  Federal  side.  Harper 
and  Griswold  retained  the  lead  of  the  adminis 
tration  party.  Giles  still  led  the  Republican  op 
position,  but  Gallatin  was  its  main  stay,  always 
ready,  always  informed,  and  already  known  to  be 
in  the  confidence  of  Jefferson,  its  moving  spirit. 
The  President's  message  was,  as  usual,  the  touch 
stone  of  party.  The  debate  upon  it  unmasked 
opinions.  It  was  to  all  intents  a  war  message, 
since  it  asked  provision  for  war.  The  action  of 
France  left  no  alternative.  The  Republicans  rec 
ognized  this  as  well  as  the  Federalists.  They 
must  either  respond  heartily  to  the  appeal  of  the 
Executive  to  maintain  the  national  honor,  or  come 
under  the  charge  they  had  brought  against  the 
Federalists  of  sympathy  with  an  enemy.  At  first 


138  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

they  sought  a  middle  ground.  Admitting  that  the 
rejection  of  our  minister  and  the  manner  of  it,  if 
followed  by  a  refusal  of  all  negotiation  on  the  sub 
ject  of  mutual  complaints,  would  put  an  end  to 
every  friendly  relation  between  the  two  countries, 
they  still  hoped  that  it  was  only  a  suspension  of 
diplomatic  intercourse.  Hence,  in  response  to  the 
assurance  in  the  message  that  an  attempt  at  nego 
tiation  would  first  be  made,  Nicholas  moved  an 
amendment  in  this  vein.  The  Federalists  opposed 
all  interference  with  the  Executive,  but  the  Re 
publicans  took  advantage  of  the  debate  to  clear 
themselves  of  any  taint  of  unpatriotic  motives  in 
their  semi-opposition.  The  Federalists,  repudiat 
ing  the  charge  of  British  influence,  held  up  Genet 
to  condemnation,  as  making  an  appeal  to  the  peo 
ple,  Fauchet  as  fomenting  an  insurrection,  and 
Adet  as  insulting  the  government.  The  Repub 
licans  retorted  upon  them  Grenville's  proposition 
to  Mr.  Pinckney,  to  support  the  American  gov 
ernment  against  the  dangerous  Jacobin  factions 
which  sought  to  overturn  it.  Gallatin  deprecated 
bringing  the  conduct  of  foreign  relations  into  de 
bate,  and  hoped  that  the  majority  would  resist  the 
rashness  which  would  drive  the  country  into  war : 
he  claimed  that  a  disposition  should  be  shown  to 
put  France  on  an  equal  footing  witli  other  nations. 
He  would  offer  an  ultimatum  to  France.  Harper 
closed  the  debate  in  a  powerful  and  brilliant 
speech,  opposing  the  amendment  because  he  was 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  139 

for  peace,  and  because  peace  could  only  be  main 
tained  by  showing  France  that  we  were  preparing 
for  war.  So  the  rival  leaders  based  their  opposite 
action  on  a  common  ground.  Dayton,  the  Speaker, 
now  embodied  Gallatin's  idea  in  another  form,  and 
introduced  a  paragraph  to  the  effect  that  "the 
House  receive  with  the  utmost  satisfaction  the  in 
formation  of  the  President  that  a  fresh  attempt 
at  negotiation  will  be  instituted,  and  cherish  the 
hope  that  a  mutual  spirit  of  conciliation  and  a  dis 
position  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  to  place 
France  on  grounds  as  favorable  as  other  countries 
will  produce  an  accommodation  compatible  with 
the  engagements,  rights,  and  honor  of  our  nation." 
Kittera,  who  was  one  of  the  committee  on  the 
address,  then  moved  to  add  after  "  mutual  spirit  of 
conciliation  "  the  clause,  "  to  compensate  for  any 
injury  done  to  our  neutral  rights,"  etc.  This  both 
Harper  and  Gallatin  opposed.  Gallatin  objected 
to  being  forced  to  this  choice.  To  vote  in  its  favor 
was  a  threat,  if  compensation  were  refused ;  to 
vote  against  it  was  an  abandonment  of  the  claim. 
But  he  should  oppose  it,  if  forced  to  a  choice. 
The  Federal  leaders  insisted ;  the  previous  ques 
tion  was  ordered,  51  to  48.  Here  Mr.  Gallatin 
showed  himself  the  leader  of  his  party.  He  stated 
that,  the  majority  having  determined  the  question, 
it  was  now  a  choice  of  evils,  and  he  should  vote 
for  the  amendment,  and  it  was  adopted,  78  ayes 
to  21  nays.  Among  the  nays  were  Harper,  the 


140  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

Federalist  leader,  Giles,  the  nominal  chief  of  the 
Republicans,  and  Nicholas,  high  in  rank  in  that 
party.  But  the  last  word  was  not  yet  said.  Ed 
ward  Livingston,  who  day  by  day  asserted  him- 
self  more  positively,  denied  that  the  conduct  of 
the  Executive  had  been  "just  and  impartial  to 
foreign  nations,"  and  moved  to  strike  out  the 
statement ;  Gallatin  was  more  moderate.  Though 
he  did  not  believe  that  in  every  instance  the  gov 
ernment  had  been  just  and  impartial,  yet,  gener 
ally  speaking,  it  had  been  so.  He  did  not  approve 
the  British  treaty,  though  he  attributed  no  bad 
motives  to  its  makers ;  but  he  did  not  think  that 
the  laws  respecting  the  subordinate  departments 
of  the  executive  and  judiciary  had  been  fairly  ex 
ecuted.  He  therefore  would  not  consent  to  the 
sentence  in  the  answer  to  the  address,  that  the 
House  did  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  "  they 
would  give  their  most  cordial  support  to  princi 
ples  so  deliberately  and  uprightly  established." 
What,  he  asked,  were  these  principles  ?  Otis  de 
nounced  this  as  an  artful  attempt  to  cast  a  cen 
sure,  not  only  on  the  Executive,  but  on  all  the 
departments  of  government,  and  Allen  of  Con 
necticut  declared  "  that  there  was  American  blood 
enough  in  the  House  to  approve  this  clause  and 
American  accent  enough  to  pronounce  it."  The 
rough  prejudice  of  the  Saxon  against  the  Latin 
race  showed  itself  in  this  language,  and  expressed 
the  antagonism  which  Mr.  Gallatin  found  to  in- 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  141 

crease  with  his  political  progress.  Both  the  res 
olution  and  the  amendment  were  defeated,  53  nays 
to  45  yeas.  But  when  the  final  vote  came  upon 
the  address,  Mr.  Gallatin,  with  that  practical  sense 
which  made  him  the  sheet  anchor  of  his  party  in 
boisterous  weather,  voted  with  the  Federalists  and 
carried  the  moderate  Republicans  with  him.  The 
vote  was  62  to  36.  Among  the  irreconcilables  the 
name  of  Edward  Livingston  is  recorded. 

The  answer  of  the  President  was  a  model  of 
good  sense.  "No  event  can  afford  me  so  much 
cordial  satisfaction  as  to  conduct  a  negotiation  with 
the  French  Republic  to  a  removal  of  prejudices, 
a  correction  of  errors,  a  dissipation  of  umbrages, 
an  accommodation  of  all  differences  and  a  restora 
tion  of  harmony  and  affection  to  the  mutual  satis 
faction  of  both  nations." 

This  was  the  leading  debate  of  the  session.  The 
situation  was  too  grave  for  trifling.  On  June  5, 
two  days  after  the  President's  reply,  resolutions 
were  introduced  to  put  the  country  in  a  state  of 
defence.  Gallatin  struggled  hard  to  keep  down 
the  appropriations,  and  opposed  the  employment 
of  the  three  frigates,  which  as  yet  had  not  been 
equipped  or  manned.  If  they  got  to  sea,  the 
President  would  have  no  option  except  to  enforce 
the  disputed  articles  of  the  French  treaty.  Gal- 
latin  laid  down  also  the  law  of  search  in  accord 
ance  with  the  law  of  nations,  and  pointed  out 
that  resistance  to  search  or  capture  by  merchant- 


142  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

men  would  not  only  lead  to  war,  but  was  war.  In 
the  remaining  acts  of  the  session  he  was  in  favor 
of  the  defence  of  ports  and  harbors,  with  no  pref 
erence  as  to  fortification  on  government  territory  ; 
in  favor  of  a  prohibition  of  the  export  of  arms  ; 
against  raising  an  additional  corps  of  artillery  ; 
against  expatriation  of  persons  who  took  service 
under  foreign  governments.  He  opposed  the  duty 
on  salt  as  unequal  and  unnecessary,  and  sought  to 
have  the  loan,  which  became  necessary,  cut  down 
to  the  exact  sum  of  the  deficiency  in  the  appropri 
ations  ;  and  finally,  on  the  impeachment  of  Wil 
liam  Blount,  Senator  of  the  United  States,  charged 
with  having  conspired  with  the  British  govern 
ment  to  attack  the  Spaniards  of  St.  Augustine,  he 
pointed  out  the  true  method  of  procedure  in  the 
preparation  of  the  bill  of  impeachment  and  the  ar 
raignment  of  the  offender. 

The  House  adjourned  on  July  10.  Jefferson 
complained  of  the  weakness  and  wavering  of  this 
Congress,  the  majority  of  which  shifted  with  the 
breeze  of  "  panic  or  prowess."  This  was,  how 
ever,  a  very  narrow  view ;  for  at  this  session  the 
House  fairly  represented  the  prevailing  sentiment 
of  the  country,  which  was  friendly  to  France  as 
a  nation,  but  indignant  with  the  insolence  of  her 
rulers.  Gallatin,  in  the  middle  of  the  session, 
wrote  to  his  wife  that  the  Republicans  "  were 
beating  and  beaten  by  turns."  He  supposed  that 
her  father,  Commodore  Nicholson,  4  thought  him 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  H3 

too  moderate  and  about  to  trim/  and  then  de^ 
clared,  '  Moderation  and  firmness  hath  ever  been, 
and  ever  will  be,  my  motto.'  Gallatin  tells  a  story 
of  his  colleague  from  Pennsylvania,  the  old  Anti 
Federalist,  Blair  McClanachan,  which  shows  the 
warmth  of  party  feeling.  They  were  both  dining 
with  President  Adams,  who  entertained  the  mem 
bers  of  Congress  in  turn.  "  McClanachan  told 
the  President  that,  by  God,  he  would  rather  see 
the  world  annihilated  than  this  country  united 
with  Great  Britain  ;  that  there  would  not  remain 
a  single  king  in  Europe  within  six  months,  etc., 
all  in  the  loudest  and  most  decisive  tone." 

Jefferson,  who,  as  vice-president,  presided  over 
the  debates  in  the  Senate,  had  no  cause  to  complain 
of  any  hesitation  in  that  body,  in  which  the  Fed 
eralists  had  regained  a  clear  working  majority, 
giving  him  no  chance  of  a  deciding  vote. 

The  second  session  of  the  fifth  Congress  began 
on  November  13,  1797.  The  words  of  the  Presi 
dent's  address,  "  We  are  met  together  at  a  most 
interesting  period,  the  situation  of  the  powers  of 
Europe  is  singular  and  portentous,"  was  not  an 
idle  phrase.  The  star  of  Bonaparte  already  domi 
nated  the  political  firmament.  Europe  lay  pros 
trate  at  the  feet  of  the  armies  of  the  Directory. 
England,  who  was  supposed  to  be  the  next  object 
of  attack,  was  staggering  under  the  load  of  debt ; 
and  the  sailors  of  her  channel  fleet  had  risen  in 


144  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

mutiny.  Even  the  Federalists,  the  aristocrats  as 
Mr.  Gallatin  delighted  to  call  them,  believed  that 
she  was  gone  beyond  recovery.  But  the  admirers 
of  France  were  no  better  satisfied  with  the  threat 
ening  attitude  of  the  Directory  towards  America, 
and  eagerly  waited  news  of  the  reception  given  to 
the  envoys  extraordinary,  Gerry,  Pinckney,  and 
Marshall,  whom  Adams  with  the  consent  of  the 
Senate  dispatched  to  Paris  in  the  summer.  Even 
Jefferson  lost  his  taste  for  a  French  alliance,  and 
almost  wished  there  were  "  an  ocean  of  fire  be 
tween  the  new  and  the  old  world." 

The  tone  of  the  President's  address  was  con 
sidered  wise  on  all  sides  and  it  was  agreed  that 
the  answer  should  be  general  and  not  a  subject  of 
contention.  One  of  the  members  asked  to  be  ex 
cused  from  going  with  the  House  to  the  President, 
but  Gallatin  showed  that,  as  there  was  no  power 
to  compel  attendance,  no  formal  excuse  was  nec 
essary.  When  the  motion  was  put  as  to  whether 
they  should  go  in  a  body  as  usual  to  present 
their  answer,  Mr.  Gallatin  voted  in  the  negative. 
He  nevertheless  accompanied  the  members,  who 
were  received  pleasantly  by  President  Adams  and 
"  treated  to  cake  and  wine." 

Harper  was  made  the  chairman  of  the  Ways 
and  Means  Committee.  Though  of  high  talents 
and  a  fine  speaker,  Gallatin  found  him  a  "  great 
bungler "  in  the  business  of  the  House,  a  large 
share  of  which  fell  upon  his  own  shoulders  as  well 


UNIVERSITY 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  145 

as  the  direction  of  the  Republicans,  of  whom,  not 
withstanding  the  jealousy  of  Giles,  he  now  was  the 
acknowledged  leader.  As  a  member  for  Pennsyl 
vania,  Mr.  Gallatin  presented  a  memorial  from 
the  Quakers  with  regard  to  the  arrest  of  fugitive 
slaves  on  her  soil;  the  law  of  Pennsylvania  declar 
ing  all  men  to  be  free  who  set  foot  in  that  State 
except  only  servants  of  members  of  Congress. 
There  was  already  an  opposition  to  hearing  any 
petition  with  regard  to  slaves,  but  Gallatin  insisted 
on  the  memorial  taking  the  usual  course  of  ref 
erence  to  a  committee.  He  directed  the  House 
also  in  the  correct  path  in  its  legislation  as  to  for 
eign  coins.  It  was  proposed  to  take  from  them 
the  quality  of  legal  tender ;  but  he  showed  that  it 
was  policy  not  to  discriminate  against  such  coins 
until  the  mint  could  supply  a  sufficiency  for  the 
use  of  the  country.  In  this  argument  he  esti 
mated  the  entire  amount  of  specie  in  the  United 
States  at  eight  millions  of  dollars.  At  this  early 
period  in  his  political  career  he  was  acquiring  that 
precise  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  American  finance 
which  later  served  to  establish  the  principles  upon 
which  it  is  based. 

This  session  was  noteworthy  by  reason  of  the 
first  personal  encounter  on  the  floor  of  the  House. 
It  was  between  two  Northern  members,  Lyon  of 
Vermont  and  Griswold  of  Connecticut.  Gallatin 
stood  by  Lyon,  who  was  of  his  party,  and  showed 
that  the  House  could  not  expel  him,  since  it  was 

10 


146  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

not  at  the  time  in  organized  session.  As  the  Fed 
eralists  would  not  consent  to  censure  Griswold, 
both  offenders  escaped  even  a  formal  reproof. 
The  general  bitterness  of  feeling  which  marked 
the  summer  session  was  greatly  modified  in  the 
expectant  state  of  foreign  politics ;  but  the  occa 
sion  for  display  of  political  divergence  was  not 
long  delayed. 

On  January  18,  1798,  Mr.  Harper,  who  led  the 
business  of  the  House,  moved  the  appropriation 
for  foreign  intercourse.  This  was  seized  upon  by 
the  opposition  to  advance  still  further  their  line  of 
attack  by  a  limitation  of  the  constitutional  pre 
rogative  of  the  President.  In  addition  to  the 
usual  salaries  of  the  envoys  to  Great  Britain  and 
France,  appropriations  were  asked  for  the  posts 
at  Madrid,  Lisbon,  and  Berlin,  which  last  Mr. 
Adams  had  designated  as  a  first-class  mission. 
The  discussion  on  the  powers  of  the  President, 
and  the  extent  to  which  they  might  be  controlled 
by  paring  down  the  appropriations,  lifted  the  de 
bate  from  the  narrow  ground  of  economy  in  ad 
ministration  to  the  higher  plane  of  constitutional 
powers.  Nicholas  opened  on  the  Republican  side 
by  announcing  that  it  was  seasonable  to  bring 
back  the  establishment  of  the  diplomatic  corps  to 
the  footing  it  had  been  on  until  the  year  1796. 
In  all  governments  like  our  own  he  declared  that 
there  was  a  tendency  to  a  union  and  consolidation 
of  all  its  parts  into  the  Executive,  and  the  lim- 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  147 

itation  and  annexion  of  the  parts  with  each 
other  as  settled  by  the  Constitution  would  be  de 
stroyed  by  this  influence  unless  there  were  a  con 
stant  attention  on  the  part  of  the  Legislature  to 
resist  it.  The  appointment  of  a  minister  pleni 
potentiary  to  Prussia,  with  which  we  had  little  or 
no  commercial  intercourse,  offered  an  opportunity 
to  determine  this  limitation.  Harper  said  that 
this  was  a  renewal  of  the  old  charge  that  foreign 
intercourse  was  unnecessary,  and  the  old  sugges 
tion  that  our  commerce  ought  to  be  given  up  or 
left  to  shift  for  itself.  Mr.  Gallatin  laid  down  ex 
treme  theories  which  have  never  yet  found  prac 
tical  application.  He  took  the  question  at  once 
from  party  or  personal  ground  by  admitting  that 
the  government  was  essentially  pure,  its  patronage 
not  extensive,  or  its  effect  upon  the  legislative  or 
any  other  branch  of  the  government  as  yet  ma 
terial.  The  Constitution  had  placed  the  patron 
age  in  the  Executive.  There  he  thought  it  was 
wisely  placed.  The  Legislature  would  be  more 
corrupt  than  the  Executive  were  it  placed  with 
them.  While  not  willing  at  once  to  give  up  po 
litical  foreign  intercourse,  he  thought  that  it 
should  by  degrees  be  altogether  declined.  To  it 
he  ascribed  the  critical  situation  of  the  country. 
Commercial  intercourse  could  be  protected  by  the 
consular  system.  He  then  argued  that  the  power 
to  provide  for  expenses  was  the  check  intended 
by  the  Constitution.  To  this  Griswold  answered 


148  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

that  this  doctrine  of  checks  contained  more  mis 
chief  than  Pandora's  box  ;  Bayard,  that  the 
checks  were  all  directed  to  the  Executive,  and 
that  they  would  check  and  counter-check  until 
they  stopped  the  wheels  of  government.^  When 
the  President  was  manacled  and  at  the  mercy  of 
the  House  they  would  be  satisfied.  He  held  the 
Executive  to  be  the  weakest  branch  of  the  gov 
ernment,  because  its  powers  are  denned ;  but  the 
limits  of  the  House  are  undefined.  As  the  de 
bate  advanced,  Nicholas  declared  that  the  purpose 
of  the  Republicans  was  to  define  the  executive 
power  and  to  put  an  end  to  its  extension  through 
their  power  over  appropriations.  Later  he  would 
bring  in  a  motion  to  do  away  with  all  foreign  in 
tercourse. 

Goodrich  answered  that  the  office  of  foreign 
minister  was  created  by  the  Constitution  itself, 
and  the  power  of  appointment  was  placed  in  the 
President.  The  House  might  speculate  upon  the 
propriety  of  doing  away  with  all  intercourse  with 
foreign  powers,  but  could  not  decide  on  it,  for  po 
litical  intercourse  did  not  depend  on  the  sending  of 
ministers  abroad.  Foreign  ministers  would  come 
here  and  the  Constitution  required  their  recep 
tion.  The  idea  that  we  should  have  no  foreign 
intercourse  was  taken  from  Washington's  Fare 
well  Address,  but  his  words  applied  only  to  alli- 

1  The  phrase  "  stop  the  wheels  of  government  "  originated  with 
"Peter  Porcupine  "  (William  Cobbett),  and  was  on  every  tongue. 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  149 

ances  offensive  and  defensive.  If  ministers  were 
abandoned,  envoys  extraordinary  must  be  sent,  a 
much  more  dangerous  practice ;  the  only  choice 
was  between  ministers  and  spies.  In  conclusion 
he  accused  the  Republicans  of  making  one  contin 
uous  attack  upon  the  administration,  and  charged 
that  the  opposition  to  the  appropriation  bill  was 
not  a  single  measure,  but  connected  with  others, 
and  intended  to  clog  the  wheels  of  government. 

The  purpose  of  the  Republicans  being  thus  de 
clared  by  Nicholas  and  squarely  met  by  the  friends 
of  the  administration,  Mr.  Gallatin,  March  1, 
1798,  summed  up  the  opposition  arguments  in  an 
elaborate  speech  three  hours  and  a  quarter  in 
length.  He  denied  the  novel  doctrine  that  each 
department  had  checks  within  itself,  but  none 
upon  others ;  he  claimed  that  the  principle  of 
checks  is  admitted  in  all  mixed  governments. 
Commercial  intercourse,  he  said,  is  regulated  by 
the  law  of  nations,  by  the  municipal  law  of  re 
spective  countries  and  by  treaties  of  commerce, 
the  application  of  which  is  the  province  of  con 
suls.  What  advantages,  he  asked,  had  our  com 
mercial  treaties  given  us,  either  that  with  France 
or  that  with  England?  He  excepted  that  part 
of  the  treaty  with  Great  Britain  which  arranged 
our  difference  with  that  power,  as  foreign  to  the 
discussion.  He  claimed  that  the  restriction  which 
we  had  laid  upon  ourselves  by  our  commercial 
treaties  had  been  attended  with  political  conse- 


150  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

quences  fatal  to  our  tranquillity.  Washington 
had  advised  a  separation  of  our  political  from  our 
commercial  relations.  The  message  of  President 
Adams  intimated  a  different  policy  and  alluded  to 
the  balance  of  power  in  Europe  as  not  to  be  for 
gotten  or  neglected.  Interesting  as  that  balance 
may  be  to  Europe,  how  does  it  concern  us  ?  We 
shall  never  throw  our  weight  into  the  scale.  Pass 
ing  from  this  to  the  danger  of  the  absorption  of 
powers  by  the  Executive,  he  cited  the  examples 
of  the  Cortes  of  Spain,  the  Etats  Ge'ne'raux  of 
France,  the  Diets  of  Denmark.  In  all  these  coun 
tries  the  Executive  is  in  possession  of  legislative, 
of  absolute  powers.  The  fate  of  the  European  re 
publics  was  similar.  Venice,  Switzerland,  and 
Holland  had  shown  the  legislative  powers  merg 
ing  into  the  executive.  The  object  of  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  United  States  is  to  divide  and  distrib 
ute  the  powers  of  government.  With  uncontrolled 
command  over  the  purse  of  the  people  the  Execu 
tive  tends  to  prodigality,  to  taxes,  and  to  wars. 
He  closed  with  a  hope  that  a  fixed  determination 
to  prevent  the  increase  of  the  national  expendi 
ture,  and  to  detach  the  country  from  any  connec 
tion  with  European  politics,  would  tend  to  recon 
cile  parties,  promote  the  happiness  of  America,  and 
conciliate  the  affection  of  every  part  of  the  Union. 
No  such  admirable  exposition  of  the  true  Ameri 
can  doctrine  of  non-interference  with  European 
politics  had  at  that  time  been  heard  in  Congress. 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  151 

In  reply,  Harper  insisted  on  the  admission  that 
the  purpose  of  the  amendment  of  Nicholas  was  to 
restrain  the  President ;  that  it  was  a  question  of 
power,  not  of  money.  Mr.  Gallatin  admitted  the 
right  of  appointment,  but  denied  that  the  House 
was  bound  to  appropriate.  Harper  rejoined  that 
the  offices  did  not  originate  with  the  President  but 
with  the  Constitution,  and  that  they  could  not  be 
destroyed  by  the  action  of  the  House,  and,  leaving 
the  general  ground  of  debate,  made  a  brilliant  at 
tack  upon  the  Republicans  as  revolutionists,  whom 
he  divided  into  three  classes:  the  philosophers, 
the  Jacobins,  and  the  sans-culottes.  The  philoso 
phers  are  most  to  be  dreaded.  "They  declaim 
with  warmth  on  the  miseries  of  mankind,  the 
abuses  of  government,  and  the  vices  of  rulers ;  all 
which  they  engage  to  remove,  providing  their  the 
ories  should  once  be  adopted.  They  talk  of  the 
perfectibility  of  man  and  of  the  dignity  of  his  na 
ture  ;  and,  entirely  forgetting  what  he  is,  de 
claim  perpetually  about  what  he  should  be." 
Of  Jacobins  there  are  plenty.  They  profit  by 
the  labors  of  others ;  tyrants  in  power,  demagogues 
when  not.  Fortunately  for  America  there  are  few 
or  no  sans-culottes  among  her  inhabitants.  Jeffer 
son,  he  said,  returned  from  France  a  missionary 
to  convert  Americans  to  the  new  faith,  and  he 
charged  that  the  system  of  French  alliance  and 
war  with  Great  Britain  by  the  United  States  was 
a  part  of  the  scheme  of  the  French  revolution- 


152  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

ists,  and  was  imported  into  this  country.  Gal- 
latin  and  his  friends  he  regarded  in  the  light  of 
an  enemy  who  has  commenced  a  siege  against  the 
fortress  of  the  Constitution. 

The  restricting  amendment  was  lost,  and  the 
bill  passed  by  a  vote  of  52  yeas  to  43  nays. 
Nor  is  it  easy  to  see  how  the  theory  of  Mr.  Gal- 
latin  with  regard  to  diplomatic  relations  could 
have  been  applied  successfully  with  the  existing 
channels  of  intercourse.  Now  that  the  ocean  cable 
brings  governments  into  direct  relation  with  each 
other,  there  is  a  tendency  to  restrict  the  authority 
of  ambassadors,  for  whom  there  is  no  longer  need, 
and  the  entire  system  will  no  doubt  soon  disap 
pear.  Mr.  Gallatin's  speech  was  the  delight  of 
his  party  and  his  friends.  He  was  called  upon 
to  write  it  out,  and  two  thousand  copies  of  it  were 
circulated  as  the  best  exposition  of  Republican 
doctrine. 

Early  in  February  the  President  informed  Con 
gress  of  certain  captures  and  outrages  committed 
by  a  French  privateer  within  the  limits  of  the 
United  States,  including  the  burning  of  an  Eng 
lish  merchantman  in  the  harbor  of  Charleston.  On 
March  19,  in  a  further  special  message,  he  commu 
nicated  dispatches  from  the  American  envoys  in 
France,  and  also  informed  Congress  that  he  should 
withdraw  his  order  forbidding  merchant  vessels  to 
sail  in  an  armed  condition.  A  collision  might, 
therefore,  occur  at  any  moment. 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  153 

On  March  27, 1798,  a  resolution  was  introduced 
that  it  is  not  now  expedient  for  the  United  States 
to  resort  to  war  against  the  French  Republic;  a 
second,  to  restrict  the  arming  of  merchant  vessels ; 
and  a  third,  to  provide  for  the  protection  of  the 
sea-coast  and  the  internal  defence  of  the  country. 
Speaking  to  the  first  resolution,  Mr.  Gallatin  said 
that  the  United  States  had  arrived  at  a  crisis  at 
which  a  stand  must  be  made,  when  the  House 
must  say  whether  it  will  resort  to  war  or  preserve 
peace.  If  to  war,  the  expense  and  its  evils  must 
be  met ;  if  peace  continue,  then  the  country  must 
submit :  in  either  case  American  vessels  would  be 
taken.  It  was  a  mere  matter  of  calculation  which 
course  would  best  serve  the  interest  and  happiness 
of  the  country.  If  he  could  separate  defensive 
from  offensive  war,  he  should  be  in  favor  of  it ;  but 
he  could  not  make  the  distinction,  and  therefore 
he  should  be  in  favor  of  measures  of  peace.  The 
act  of  the  President  was  a  war  measure.  Mem 
bers  of  the  House  so  designated  it  in  letters  to 
their  constituents. 

On  April  2  the  President  was  requested  to 
communicate  the  instructions  and  dispatches  from 
the  envoys  extraordinary,  mention  of  which  he  had 
made  in  his  message  of  March  19.  Gallatin  sup 
ported  the  call.  He  said  that  the  President  was 
not  afraid  of  communicating  information,  as  he 
had  shown  in  the  preceding  session,  and  that  to 
withhold  it  would  endanger  the  safety  of  our 


154  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

commerce,  or  prevent  the  happy  issue  of  negotia 
tion.  On  April  8  Mr.  Gallatin  presented  a  peti 
tion  against  hazarding  the  neutrality  and  peace  of 
the  nation  by  authorizing  private  citizens  to  arm 
and  equip  vessels.  This  was  signed  by  forty  mem 
bers  of  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature.  Protests  of 
a  similar  character  were  presented  from  other  parts 
of  the  country.  On  the  same  day  the  President 
sent  in  the  famous  X,  Y,  Z  dispatches,  in  confi 
dence.  These  letters  represented  the  names  of 
Hottinguer,  Bellamy,  and  Haute val,  the  agents  of 
Talleyrand,  the  foreign  minister  of  the  First  Con 
sul,  which  were  withheld  by  the  President.  The 
mysterious  negotiations  contained  a  distinct  de 
mand  by  Talleyrand  of  a  douceur  of  1,200,000 
livres  to  the  French  officials  as  a  condition  of 
peace.  The  effect  was  immediately  to  strengthen 
the  administration,  Dayton,  the  Speaker,  passing 
to  the  ranks  of  the  Federalists. 

On  the  18th  the  Senate  sent  down  a  bill  author 
izing  the  President  to  procure  sixteen  armed  ves 
sels  to  act  as  convoys.  Gallatin  still  held  firm. 
He  admitted  that  from  the  beginning  of  the  Euro 
pean  contest  the  belligerent  powers  had  disre 
garded  the  law  of  nations  and  the  stipulations  of 
treaties,  but  he  still  opposed  the  granting  of  armed 
convoys,  which  would  lead  to  a  collision.  Let  us 
not,  he  said,  act  on  speculative  grounds ;  if  our 
present  situation  is  better  than  war,  let  us  keep  it. 
Better  even,  he  said,  suffer  the  French  to  go  on 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  155 

with  their   depredations   than   fo   take   any  step 
which  may  lead  to  war. 

Allen  of  Connecticut  read  a  passage  from  the 
dispatches  wbich  envenomed  the  debate.  By  it 
one  of  the  French  agents  appears  to  have  warned 
the  American  envoys  that  they  were  mistaken  in 
supposing  that  an  exposition  of  the  unreasonable 
demands  of  France  would  unite  the  people  of 
the  United  States.  He  said,  "  You  should  know 
that  the  diplomatic  skill  of  France  and  the  means 
she  possesses  in  your  country  are  sufficient  to  en 
able  her,  with  the  French  party  in  America,  to 
throw  the  blame  which  will  attend  the  rupture  of 
the  negotiations  on  the  Federalists,  as  you  term 
yourselves,  but  on  the  British  party,  as  France 
terms  you,  and  you  may  assure  yourselves  this 
will  be  done."  Allen  then  charged  upon  Gallatin 
that  his  language  was  that  of  a  foreign  agent. 
Gallatin  replied  that  the  representatives  of  the 
French  Republic  in  this  country  had  shown  them 
selves  to  be  the  worst  diplomatists  that  had  ever 
been  sent  to  it,  and  he  asked  why  the  gentlemen 
who  did  not  come  forward  with  a  declaration  of 
war  (though  they  were  willing  to  go  to  war  with 
out  the  declaration)  charge  their  adversaries  with 
meaning  to  submit  to  France.  France  might  de 
clare  war  or  give  an  order  to  seize  American  vessels, 
but  as  long  as  she  did  not,  some  hope  remained 
that  the  state  of  peace  might  not  be  broken  ;  and 
he  said  in  conclusion  "  that,  notwithstanding  all 


156  ALBERT   GALLATIN. 

the  violent  charges  and  personal  abuse  which  had 
been  made  against  him,  it  would  produce  no  dif 
ference  in  his  manner  of  acting,  neither  prevent 
him-  from  speaking  against  every  measure  which 
he  thought  injurious  to  the  public  interest,  nor,  on 
the  other  hand,  inflame  his  mind  so  as  to  induce 
him  to  oppose  measures  which  he  might  heretofore 
have  thought  proper." 

The  war  feeling  ran  high  in  the  country  ;  "  Mil 
lions  for  defence,  but  not  one  cent  for  tribute,"  l 
was  the  popular  cry.  On  May  28  Mr.  Harper  in 
troduced  a  bill  to  suspend  commercial  intercourse 
with  France.  Gallatin  thought  this  a  doubtful 
measure.  Its  avowed  purpose  was  to  distress 
France  in  the  West  Indies,  but  he  said  that  in  six 
months  that  entire  trade  would  be  by  neutral  ves 
sels.  In  the  discussion  on  the  bill  to  regulate  the 
arming  of  merchant  vessels,  he  showed  that  it 
was  the  practice  of  neutral  European  nations  to 
allow  such  vessels  to  arm,  but  not  to  regulate  their 
conduct.  Bonds  are  required  in  cases  of  letter  of 
marque,  and  the  merchant  who  arms  is  bound  not 
to  break  the  laws  of  nations  or  the  agreements  of 
treaties.  Restriction  was  therefore  unnecessary. 
Government  should  not  interfere.  Commercial 
intercourse  with  France  was  suspended  June  13. 

In  the  pride  of  their  new  triumph  and  the  in 
tensity  of  their  personal  feeling  the  Federalists 
overleaped  their  mark,  and  began  a  series  of 

1  Charles  C.  Pincknej,  when  Ambassador  to  France,  1796. 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  157 

measures  which  ultimately  cost  them  the  posses 
sion  of  the  government  and  their  political  exist 
ence.  The  first  of  these  was  the  Sedition  Bill, 
which  Jefferson  believed  to  be  aimed  at  Gallatin 
in  person.  Mr.  Gallatin  met  it  at  its  inception 
with  a  statement  of  the  constitutional  objections, 
viz.,  1st,  that  there  was  no  power  to  make  such  a 
law,  and  2d,  the  special  provision  in  the  Constitu 
tion  that  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall  not  be 
suspended  except  in  cases  of  rebellion  and  in 
vasion.  There  was  neither.  The  second,  the 
Alien  Bill,  gave  the  President  power  to  expel 
from  the  country  all  aliens.  Over  this  measure 
Gallatin  and  Harper  had  hot  words.  Gallatin 
charged  upon  Harper  not  only  a  misrepresen 
tation  of  the  arguments  of  his  opponents,  but  an 
arraignment  of  the  motives  of  others,  while  claim 
ing  all  purity  for  his  own.  Harper  answered  in 
words  which  show  that  Gallatin,  for  once,  had 
met  warmth  with  warmth,  and  anger  with  anger. 
When,  Harper  said,  a  gentleman,  who  is  usually 
so  cool,  all  at  once  assumes  such  a  tone  of  passion 
as  to  forget  all  decorum  of  language,  it  would 
seem  as  if  the  observation  had  been  properly  ap> 
plied.  On  the  vote  to  strike  out  the  obnoxious 
sections,  the  Federalists  defeated  their  antago 
nists,  and  on  June  21  the  bill  itself  was  passed 
with  all  its  odious  features  by  46  to  40. 

On  June  21  President  Adams  sent  in  a  message 
with   letters  from  Gerry,   who  had   remained  at 


158  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

Paris  after  the  return  of  Marshall  and  Pinckney, 
on  the  subject  of  a  loan.  They  contained  an  in 
timation  from  Talleyrand  that  he  was  ready  to 
resume  negotiations.  In  this  message  Adams  said, 
"I  will  never  send  another  minister  to  France 
without  assurances  that  he  will  be  received,  re 
spected,  and  honored  as  the  representative  of  a 
great,  free,  powerful,  and  independent  nation." 
On  the  25th  an  act  was  passed  authorizing  the 
commanders  of  merchant  vessels  to  defend  them 
selves  against  search  and  seizure  under  regula 
tions  by  the  President.  On  June  30  a  further 
act  authorized  the  purchase  and  equipment  of 
twelve  vessels  as  an  addition  to  the  naval  arma 
ment.  To  all  intents  and  purposes  a  state  of 
war  between  the  two  countries  already  existed. 

The  4th  of  July  (1798)  was  celebrated  with 
unusual  enthusiasm  all  over  the  United  States, 
and  the  black  cockade  was  generally  worn.  This 
was  the  distinctive  badge  of  the  Federalists,  and  a 
response  to  the  tricolor  which  Adet  had  recom 
mended  all  French  citizens  to  wear  in  1794. 

On  July  5  a  resolution  was  moved  to  appoint  a 
committee  to  consider  the  expediency  of  declaring, 
by  legislative  act,  the  state  of  relations  between 
the  United  States  and  the  French  Republic.  Mr. 
Gallatin  asked  if  a  declaration  of  war  could  not 
be  moved  as  an  amendment,  but  the  Speaker,  Mr. 
Dayton,  made  no  reply.  Mr.  Gallatin  objected 
that  Congress  could  not  declare  a  state  of  facts 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  159 

by  a  legislative  act.  But  this  view,  if  tenable 
then,  has  long  since  been  abandoned.  In  witness 
of  which  it  is  only  necessary  to  name  the  cel 
ebrated  resolution  of  the  Congress  of  1865  with 
regard  to  the  recognition  of  a  monarchy  in  Mex 
ico.  July  6  the  House  went  into  committee  of 
the  whole  on  the  state  of  the  Union  to  con 
sider  a  bill  sent  down  by  the  Senate  abrogating 
the  treaty  with  France.  The  bill  was  passed  on 
the  16th  by  a  vote  of  47  ayes  to  37  nays,  Gallatin 
voting  in  the  negative.  The  House  adjourned  the 
the  same  day. 

While  thus  engaged  in  debates  which  called 
into  exercise  his  varied  information  and  displayed 
not  only  the  extent  of  his  learning  but  his  re 
markable  powers  of  reasoning  and  statement,  Mr. 
Gallatin  never  lost  sight  of  reform  in  the  adminis 
tration  of  the  finances  of  the  government.  To  the 
success  of  his  efforts  to  hold  the  Treasury  Depart 
ment  to  a  strict  conformity  with  his  theory  of 
administration,  Mr.  Wolcott,  the  Secretary,  gave 
ample  if  unwilling  testimony.  To  Hamilton  he 
wrote  on  April  5,  1798,  *'  Tho  management  of 
the  Treasury  becomes  more  and  more  difficult. 
The  Legislature  will  not  pass  laws  in  gross ;  their 
appropriations  are  minute.  Gallatin,  to  whom 
they  yield,  is  evidently  intending  to  break  down 
this  department  by  charging  it  with  an  impracti 
cable  detail." 

During  these  warm  discussions  Gallatin  rarely 


160  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

lost  his  self-control.  Writing  to  his  old  friend  Les- 
dernier  at  this  period,  he  said,  "  You  may  remem 
ber  I  am  blessed  with  a  very  even  temper ;  it  has 
not  been  altered  by  time  or  politics." 

The  third  session  of  the  fifth  Congress  opened 
on  December  3, 1798.  On  the  8th,  when  the  Pres 
ident  was  expected,  Lieutenant-general  Washing 
ton  and  Generals  Pinckney  and  Hamilton  entered 
the  hall  and  took  their  places  on  the  right  of  the 
Speaker's  chair.  They  had  been  recently  ap 
pointed  to  command  the  army  of  defence. 

The  President's  speech  announced  no  change  in 
the  situation.  "  Nothing,"  he  said,  "  is  discov 
erable  in  the  conduct  of  France  which  ought  to 
change  or  relax  our  measures  for  defence.  On  the 
contrary,  to  extend  and  invigorate  them  is  our  true 
policy.  An  efficient  preparation  for  war  can  alone 
insure  peace.  It  must  be  left  to  France,  if  she 
is  indeed  desirous  of  accommodation,  to  take  the 
requisite  steps.  The  United  States  will  steadily 
observe  the  maxims  by  which  they  have  hitherto 
been  governed."  The  reply  to  this  patriotic  sen 
timent  was  unanimously  agreed  to,  and  was  most 
grateful  to  Adams,  who  thanked  the  House  for 
it  as  "  consonant  to  the  characters  of  represen 
tatives  of  a  great  and  free  people." 

On  December  27  a  peculiar  resolution  was  in 
troduced  to  punish  the  usurpation  of  the  exec 
utive  authority  of  the  government  of  the  United 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  161 

States  in  carrying  on  correspondence  with  the  gov 
ernment  of  any  foreign  prince  or  state.  Gallatin 
thought  this  resolution  covered  too  much  ground. 
The  criminality  of  such  acts  did  not  lie  in  their 
being  usurpations,  but  in  the  nature  of  the  crime 
committed.  There  was  no  authority  in  the  Con 
stitution  for  a  grant  of  such  a  power  to  the  Pres 
ident.  To  afford  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy 
was  treason,  but  there  was  no  war,  and  therefore 
no  enemy.  He  claimed  the  right  to  himself  and 
others  to  do  all  in  his  power  to  secure  a  peace, 
even  by  correspondence  abroad,  and  he  would  not 
admit  that  the  ground  taken  by  the  friends  of  the 
measure  was  a  proper  foundation  for  a  general 
law.  A  committee  was,  however,  appointed,  in 
spite  of  this  remonstrance,  to  consider  the  pro 
priety  of  including  in  the  general  act  all  persons 
who  should  commence  or  carry  on  a  correspond 
ence,  by  a  vote  of  65  to  23.  A  bill  was  reported 
on  January  9,  when  Gallatin  endeavored  to  at 
tach  a  proviso  that  the  law  should  not  operate 
upon  persons  seeking  justice  or  redress  from  for 
eign  governments  ;  but  his  motion  was  defeated 
by  a  vote  of  48  to  37.  Later,  however,  a  resolu 
tion  of  Mr.  Parker,  that  nothing  in  the  act  should 
be  construed  to  abridge  the  rights  of  any  citizen 
to  apply  for  such  redress,  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of 
69  yeas  to  27  nays.  On  this  vote  Harper  voted 
yea.  Griswold,  Otis,  Bayard,  and  Goodrich  were 
found  among  the  nays.  Gallatin  succeeded  in 
11 


162  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

carrying  an  amendment  defining  the  bill,  after 
which  it  was  passed  by  a  vote  of  58  to  36. 

Towards  the  close  of  January,  1799,  a  bill  was 
brought  in  authorizing  the  President  to  discon 
tinue  the  restraints  of  the  act  suspending  inter 
course  with  the  French  West  India  Islands,  when 
ever  any  persons  in  authority  or  command  should 
so  request.  This  was  to  invite  a  secession  of  the 
French  colonies  from  the  mother  country.  Gal- 
latin  deprecated  any  action  which  knight  induce 
rebellion  against  authority,  or  lead  to  self-govern 
ment  among  the  people  of  the  islands  who  were 
unfit  for  it.  Moreover,  such  action  would  remove 
still  further  every  expectation  of  an  accommoda 
tion  with  France.  The  bill  was  passed  by  a  vote 
of  55  to  37.  He  objected  to  the  bill  to  authorize 
the  President  to  suspend  intercourse  with  Spanish 
and  Dutch  ports  which  should  harbor  French  pri 
vateers,  as  placing  an  unlimited  power  to  interdict 
commerce  in  the  hands  of  the  Executive.  The 
bill  was  carried  by  55  to  37.  On  the  question  of 
the  augmentation  of  the  navy  he  opposed  the 
building  of  the  seventy-fours. 

In  February  Edward  Livingston  presented  a 
petition  from  aliens,  natives  of  Ireland,  against 
the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws.  Numerous  similar 
petitions  followed  ;  one  was  signed  by  18,000  per 
sons  in  Pennsylvania  alone.  To  postpone  consid 
eration  of  the  subject,  the  Federalists  sent  these 
papers  to  a  select  committee,  against  the  protests 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  168 

of  Livingston  and  Gallatin.  This  course  was  the 
more  peculiar  because  of  the  reference  of  peti 
tions  of  a  similar  character  in  the  month  previous 
to  the  committee  of  the  whole.  The  Federalists 
were  abusing  their  majority,  and  precipitating 
their  unexpected  but  certain  ruin.  One  more  ef 
fort  was  made  to  repeal  the  offensive  penal  act ; 
the  constitutional  objection  was  again  pleaded,  but 
the  repeal  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  52  in  the 
affirmative.  Mr.  Gallatin  opposed  these  laws  in 
till  their  stages,  but,  failing  in  this,  persistently  en 
deavored  to  make  them  as  good  as  possible  before 
they  passed.  Jefferson  later  said  that  nothing 
could  obliterate  from  the  recollection  of  those  who 
were  witnesses  of  it  the  courage  of  Gallatin  in 
the  "Days  of  Terror."1  The  vote  of  thanks  to 
Mr.  Dayton,  the  Speaker,  was  carried  by  a  vote 
of  40  to  22.  On  March  3,  1800,  this  Congress 
adjourned. 

The  sixth  Congress  met  at  Philadelphia  on 
December  2, 1799.  The  Federalists  were  returned 
in  full  majority.  Among  the  new  members  of 
the  House,  John  Marshall  and  John  Randolph 
appeared  for  Virginia.  Theodore  Sedgwick  was 
chosen  speaker.  President  Adams  came  down  to 
the  House  on  the  3d  and  made  the  usual  speech. 
The  address  in  reply,  reported  by  a  committee  of 

1  Jefferson  to  William  Duane,  March  28,   1881.    Jefferson's 
Works,  vol.  v.  p.  574. 


164  ALBERT   GALL  AT  IN. 

which  Marshall  was  chairman,  was  agreed  to  with 
out  amendment.  Adams  was  again  delighted  with 
the  very  respectful  terms  adopted  at  the  "  first  as 
sembly  after  a  fresh  election,  under  the  strong  im 
pression  of  the  public  opinion  and  national  sense 
at  this  interesting  and  singular  crisis."  At  this 
session  it  was  the  sad  privilege  of  Marshall  to  an 
nounce  the  death  of  Washington,  "  the  Hero,  the 
Sage,  and  the  Patriot  of  America."  In  the  shadow 
of  this  great  grief,  party  passion  was  hushed  for  a 
while. 

Gallatin  again  led  the  Republican  opposition  ; 
Nicholas  and  Macon  were  his  able  lieutenants. 
The  line  of  attack  of  the  Republicans  was  clear. 
If  war  could  be  avoided,  the  growing  unpopu 
larity  of  the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws  would  surely 
bring  them  to  power.  The  foreign-born  voter  was 
already  a  factor  in  American  politics.  In  January 
the  law  providing  for  an  addition  to  the  army  was 
•suspended.  Macon  then  moved  the  repeal  of  the 
Sedition  Law.  He  took  the  ground  that  it  was  a 
measure  of  defence.  Bayard  adroitly  proposed  as 
an  amendment  that  "  the  offences  therein  specified 
shall  remain  punishable  as  at  common  law,  pro 
vided  that  upon  any  prosecution  it  shall  be  lawful 
for  the  defendant  to  give  as  his  defence  the  truth 
of  the  matter  charged  as  a  libel."  Gallatin  called 
upon  the  chair  to  declare  the  amendment  out  of 
order,  as  intended  to  destroy  the  resolution,  but 
the  Speaker  declined,  and  the  amendment  was  car- 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  165 

ried  by  a  vote  of  51  to  47.  The  resolution  thus 
amended  was  then  defeated  by  a  vote  of  87  to  1. 
The  Republicans  preferred  the  odious  act  in  its 
original  form  rather  than  accept  the  Federal  in 
terpretation  of  it. 

On  February  11,  1800,  a  bill  was  introduced 
into  Congress  further  to  suspend  commercial  in 
tercourse  with  France.  It  passed  the  House  after 
a  short  debate  by  a  vote  of  68  yeas  to  28  nays. 
On  this  bill  the  Republican  leaders  were  divided. 
Nicholson,  Macon,  and  Randolph  opposed  it ;  but 
Gallatin,  separating  from  his  friends,  carried 
enough  of  his  party  with  him  to  secure  its  pas 
sage.  Returned  by  the  Senate  with  amendments, 
it  was  again  objected  to  by  Macon  as  fatal  to  the 
interests  of  the  Southern  States,  but  the  House 
resolved  to  concur  by  a  vote  of  50  to  36. 

In  March  the  country  was  greatly  excited  by 
the  news  of  an  engagement  on  the  1st  of  Febru 
ary,  off  Guadaloupe,  between  the  United  States 
frigate  Constellation,  thirty-eight  guns,  and  a 
French  national  frigate,  La  Vengeance,  fifty-four 
guns.  The  House  of  Representatives  called  on 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  for  information,  and, 
by  84  yeas  to  4  nays,  voted  a  gold  medal  to  Cap 
tain  Truxton,  who  commanded  the  American 
ship.  John  Randolph's  name  is  recorded  in  the 
negative. 

Notwithstanding  this  collision,  the  relations  of 
the  United  States  and  France  were  gradually  as- 


166  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

suming  a  kindlier  phase.  The  Directory  had 
sought  to  drive  the  American  government  into 
active  measures  against  England.  Bonaparte, 
chosen  First  Consul,  at  once  adopted  a  concil 
iatory  tone.  Preparing  for  a  great  continental 
struggle,  he  was  concentrating  the  energies  and 
the  powers  of  France.  In  May  Mr.  Parker  called 
the  attention  of  the  House  to  this  change  of  con 
duct  in  the  French  government  and  offered  a  res 
olution  instructing  the  Committee  on  Commerce 
to  inquire  if  any  amendments  to  the  Foreign  In 
tercourse  Act  were  necessary.  Macon  moved  to 
amend  so  that  the  inquiry  should  be  whether  it 
were  not  expedient  to  repeal  the  act.  Gallatin  op 
posed  the  resolution  on  the  ground  that  it  was 
highly  improper  to  take  any  measures  at  the 
present  time  which  would  change  the  defensive 
system  of  the  country.  The  resolution  was  nega 
tived, —  43  nays  to  40  yeas. 

One  singular  opposition  of  Gallatin  is  recorded 
towards  the  close  of  the  session  ;  the  Committee 
on  the  Treasury  Department  reported  an  amend 
ment  to  the  act  of  establishment,  providing  that 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  shall  lay  before 
Congress,  at  the  commencement  of  every  session, 
a  report  on  finance  with  plans  for  the  support  of 
credit,  etc.  Gallatin  and  Nicholas  opposed  this 
bill,  because  it  came  down  from  the  Senate,  which 
had  no  constitutional  right  to  originate  a  money 
bill ;  but  Griswold  and  Harper  at  once  took  the 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  167 

correct  ground  that  it  was  not  a  bill,  but  a  report 
on  the  state  of  the  finances,  in  which  the  Senate 
had  an  equal  share  with  the  House.  The  bill  was 
passed  by  a  vote  of  43  to  39.  It  is  worthy  of 
note  that  the  first  report  on  the  state  of  the 
finances  communicated  under  this  act  was  by  Mr. 
Gallatin  himself  the  next  year,  and  that  it  was 
sent  in  to  the  Senate.  The  House  adjourned  on 
May  14,  1800. 

The  second  session  of  the  sixth  Congress  was 
held  at  the  city  of  Washington,  to  which  the  seat 
of  government  had  been  removed  in  the  summer 
interval.  After  two  southerly  migrations  they 
were  now  definitively  established  at  a  national 
capital.  The  session  opened  on  November  17, 
1800.  On  the  22d  President  Adams  congratu 
lated  Congress  on  "the  prospect  of  a  residence 
not  to  be  changed."  The  address  of  the  House 
in  reply  was  adopted  by  a  close  vote. 

The  situation  of  foreign  relations  was  changed. 
The  First  Consul  received  the  American  envoys 
cordially,  and  a  commercial  convention  was  made 
but  secured  ratification  by  the  Senate  only  after 
the  elimination  of  an  article  and  a  limitation  of  its 
duration  to  eight  years.  While  the  bill  was  pend 
ing  in  the  Senate,  Mr.  Samuel  Smith  moved  to 
continue  the  act  to  suspend  commercial  inter 
course  with  France.  Mr.  Gallatin  opposed  this 
motion ;  at  the  last  session  he  had  voted  for  this 


168  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

bill  because  there  was  only  the  appearance  of  a 
treaty.  Now  that  the  precise  state  of  negotiation 
was  known,  why  should  the  House  longer  leave 
this  matter  to  the  discretion  of  the  President? 
The  House  decided  to  reject  the  indiscreet  bill  by 
a  vote  of  59  to  37.  An  effort  was  also  made  to 
repeal  a  part  of  the  Sedition  Law,  and  continue 
the  rest  in  force,  but  the  House  refused  to  order 
the  engrossing  of  the  bill,  taking  wise  counsel  of 
Dawson,  who  said  that,  supported  by  the  justice 
and  policy  of  their  measures,  the  approaching  ad* 
ministration  would  not  need  the  aid  of  either  the 
alien,  sedition,  or  common  law.  The  opponents 
of  the  bill  would  not  consent  to  any  modification. 
The  last  scenes  of  the  session  were  of  exciting  in 
terest. 

Freed  from  the  menace  of  immediate  war,  the 
people  of  plain  common  sense  recognized  that 
the  friendship  of  Great  Britain  was  more  danger 
ous  than  the  enmity  of  France.  They  dreaded  the 
fixed  power  of  an  organized  aristocracy  far  more 
than  the  ephemeral  anarchy  of  an  ill-ordered  de 
mocracy  ;  they  were  more  averse  to  class  distinc 
tions  protected  by  law  than  even  to  military  des 
potism  which  destroyed  all  distinctions,  and  they 
preferred,  as  man  always  has  preferred  and  always 
will  prefer,  personal  to  political  equality.  The 
Alien  and  Sedition  laws  had  borne  their  legiti 
mate  fruit.  The  foreign-born  population  held  the 
balance  of  power;  a  general  vote  would  have 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  169 

shown  a  large  Republican  or,  it  is  more  correct  to 
say,  anti-Federalist  majority.  But  the  popular 
will  could  not  be  thus  expressed.  Under  the  old 
system  each  elector  in  the  electoral  college  cast 
his  ballot  for  president  and  vice-president  without 
designation  of  his  preference  as  to  who  should  fill 
the  first  place.  New  England  was  solid  for 
Adams,  who,  however,  had  little  strength  beyond 
the  limits  of  this  Federal  stronghold.  New  York 
and  the  Southern  States  with  inconsiderable  ex 
ceptions  were  Republican.  Pennsylvania  was  so 
divided  in  the  Legislature  that  her  entire  vote 
would  have  been  lost  but  for  a  compromise  which 
gave  to  the  Republicans  one  vote  more  than  to 
the  Federalists.  Adams  being  out  of  the  question, 
the  election  to  the  first  place  lay  between  Jeffer 
son  and  Burr,  both  Republicans.  The  Federalists, 
therefore,  had  their  option  between  the  two  Re 
publican  candidates,  and  the  result  was  within  the 
reach  of  that  most  detestable  of  combinations,  a 
political  bargain.  Mr.  Gallatin's  position  in  this 
condition  of  affairs  was  controlling.  His  loyalty 
to  Jefferson  was  unquestioned,  while  Burr  was  the 
favorite  of  the  large  Republican  party  in  New 
York  whose  leaders  were  Mr.  Gallatin's  immedi 
ate  friends  and  warm  supporters.  Both  Jefferson 
and  Burr  were  accused  of  bargaining  to  secure 
enough  of  the  Federalist  vote  to  turn  the  scale. 
That  Mr.  Jefferson  did  make  some  sacrifice  of  his 
independence  is  now  believed.  Whether  Mr.  Gal- 


170  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

latin  was  aware  of  any  such  compromise  is  uncer 
tain.  If  such  bargain  were  made,  General  Sam 
uel  Smith  was  the  channel  of  arrangement,  and  in 
view  of  the  inexplicable  and  ignominious  defer 
ence  of  Jefferson  and  Madison  to  his  political  de 
mands,  there  is  little  doubt  that  he  held  a  secret 
power  which  they  dared  not  resist.  Gallatin  felt 
it,  suffered  from  it,  protested  against  it,  but  sub 
mitted  to  it. 

The  fear  was  that  Congress  might  adjourn 
without  a  conclusion.  To  meet  this  emergency  Mr. 
Gallatin  devised  a  plan  of  balloting  in  the  House, 
which  he  communicated  to  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr. 
Nicholas.  It  stated  the  objects  of  the  Federalists 
to  be,  1st,  to  elect  Burr  ;  2d,  to  defeat  the  present 
election  and  order  a  new  one ;  3d,  to  assume  exec 
utive  power  during  the  interregnum.  These  he 
considers,  and  suggests  alternative  action  in  case  of 
submission  or  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Repub 
licans.  The  Federalists,  holding  three  branches 
of  government,  viz.,  the  presidency,  a  majority  in 
the  Senate,  and  a  majority  in  the  House,  might 
pass  a  law  declaring  that  one  of  the  great  officers 
designated  by  the  Constitution  should  act  as  Pres 
ident  pro  tempore,  which  would  be  constitutional. 
But  while  Mr.  Gallatin  in  this  paragraph  admit 
ted  such  a  law  to  be  constitutional,  in  the  next  he 
argued  that  the  act  of  the  person  designated  by 
law,  or  of  the  President  pro  tempore,  assuming  the 
power  is  clearly  "unconstitutional."  By  this  in* 


MEMBER   OF  CONGRESS.  171 

genious  process  of  reasoning,  to  which  the  strict 
constructionists  have  always  been  partial,  it  might 
be  unconstitutional  to  carry  out  constitutional  law. 
The  assumption  of  such  power  was  therefore,  Mr. 
Gallatin  held,  usurpation,  to  be  resisted  in  one  of 
two  ways ;  by  declaring  the  interval  till  the  next 
session  of  Congress  an  interregnum,  allowing  all 
laws  not  immediately  connected  with  presidential 
powers  to  take  their  course,  and  opposing  a  silent 
resistance  to  all  others ;  or  by  the  Republicans  as 
suming  the  executive  power ,  by  a  joint  act  of  the 
two  candidates,  or  by  the  relinquish  men  t  of  all 
claims  by  one  of  them.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
proposed  outlines  of  Republican  conduct  were, 
1st,  to  persevere  in  voting  for  Mr.  Jefferson;  2d, 
to  use  every  endeavor  to  defeat  any  law  on  the 
subject ;  3d,  to  try  to  persuade  Mr.  Adams  to  re 
fuse  his  consent  to  any  such  law  and  not  to  call 
the  Senate  on  any  account  if  there  should  be  no 
choice  by  the  House. 

In  a  letter  written  in  1848  Mr.  Gallatin  said 
that  a  provision  by  law  that  if  there  should  be 
no  election  the  executive  power  be  placed  in  the 
hands  of  some  public  officer  was  a  revolutionary 
act  of  usurpation  which  would  have  been  put 
down  by  force  if  necessary.  It  was  threatened 
that,  if  any  man  should  be  thus  appointed  pres 
ident  he  should  instantly  be  put  to  death,  and 
bodies  of  men  were  said  to  be  organized,  in  Mary 
land  and  Virginia,  ready  to  march  to  Washington 


172  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

on  March  4  for  that  purpose.  The  fears  of  violence 
were  so  great  that  to  Governor  McKean  of  Penn 
sylvania  was  submitted  the  propriety  of  having  a 
body  of  militia  in  readiness  to  reach  the  capital 
in  time  to  prevent  civil  war.  From  this  letter  of 
Mr.  Gallatin,  then  the  last  surviving  witness  of 
the  election,  only  one  conclusion  can  be  drawn : 
that  the  Republicans  would  have  preferred  violent 
resistance  to  temporary  submission,  even  though 
the  officer  exercising  executive  powers  was  ap 
pointed  in  accordance  with  law.  Fortunately  for 
the  young  country  there  was  enough  good  sense 
and  patriotism  in  the  ranks  of  the  Federalists  to 
avert  the  danger. 

On  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Bayard  it  was  agreed 
by  a  committee  of  sixteen  members,  one  from 
each  State,  that  if  it  should  appear  that  the  two 
persons  highest  on  the  list,  Jefferson  and  Burr, 
had  an  equal  number  of  votes,  the  House  should 
immediately  proceed  in  their  own  chamber  to 
choose  the  president  by  ballot,  and  should  not  ad 
journ  until  an  election  should  have  been  made. 
On  the  first  ballot  there  was  a  tie  between  Jef 
ferson  and  Burr ;  the  dead-lock  continued  until 
February  17,  when  the  Federalists  abandoned  the 
contest,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  received  the  requisite 
number  of  votes.  Burr,  having  the  second  num 
ber,  became  vice-president. 

Mr.  Gmllatin's  third  congressional  term  closed 
with  this  Congress.  In  his  first  term  he  asserted 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  173 

his  power  and  took  his  place  in  the  councils  of 
the  party.  In  his  second,  he  became  its  acknowl 
edged  chief.  In  the  third,  he  led  its  forces  to  final 
victory.  But  for  his  opposition,  war  would  have 
been  declared  against  France,  and  the  Republican 
party  would  have  disappeared  in  the  political 
chasm.  But  for  his  admirable  management,  Mr. 
Jefferson  would  have  been  relegated  to  the  study 
of  theoretical  government  on  his  Monticello  farm, 
or  to  play  second  fiddle  at  the  capitol  to  the 
music  of  Aaron  Burr. 

In  the  foregoing  analysis  of  the  debates  and 
resolutions  of  Congress,  and  the  recital  of  the  part 
taken  in  them  by  Mr.  Gallatin,  attention  has  only 
been  paid  to  such  of  the  proceedings  as  concerned 
the  interpretation  of  the  Constitution  or  the  forms 
of  administration  with  which  Mr.  Gallatin  inter 
ested  himself.  From  the  day  of  his  first  appear 
ance  he  commanded  the  attention  and  the  respect 
of  his  fellows.  The  leadership  of  his  party  fell 
to  him  as  of  coarse.  It  was  not  grasped  by  him. 
He  was  never  a  partisan.  He  never  waived  his 
entire  independence  of  judgment.  His  ingenuity 
and  adroitness  never  tempted  him  to  untenable 
positions.  Hence  his  party  followed  him  with 
implicit  confidence.  Yet  while  the  debates  of 
Congress,  imperfectly  reported  as  they  seem  to  be 
in  its  annals,  show  the  deference  paid  to  him  by 
the  Republican  leaders,  and  display  the  great 
share  he  took  in  the  definition  of  powers  and 


174    "  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

of  administration  as  now  understood,  his  name 
is  hardly  mentioned  in  history.  Jefferson  and 
Madison  became  Presidents  of  the  United  States. 
They,  with  Gallatin,  formed  the  triumvirate  which 
ruled  the  country  for  sixteen  years.  Gallatin  was 
the  youngest  of  the  three.1  To  this  political  com 
bination  Gallatin  brought  a  knowledge  of  consti 
tutional  law  equal  to  their  own,  a  knowledge  of 
international  law  superior  to  that  of  either,  and 
a  habit  of  practical  administration  of  which  they 
had  no  conception.  The  Republican  party  lost 
its  chief  when  Gallatin  left  the  House ;  from  that 
day  it  floundered  to  its  close. 

In  the  balance  of  opinion  there  are  no  certain 
weights  and  measures.  The  preponderance  of 
causes  cannot  be  precisely  ascertained.  The  free 
dom  which  the  people  of  the  United  States  enjoy 
to-day  is  not  the  work  of  any  one  party.  Those 
who  are  descended  from  its  original  stock,  and 
those  whom  its  free  institutions  have  since  in 
vited  to  full  membership,  owe  that  freedom  to 
two  causes :  the  one,  formulated  by  Hamilton, 
a  strong,  central  power,  which,  deriving  its  force 
from  the  people,  maintains  its  authority  at  home 
and  secures  respect  abroad ;  the  other,  the  spirit 
of  liberty  which  found  expression  in  the  famous 
declaration  of  the  rights  of  man.  This  influence 
Jefferson  represented.  It  taught  the  equality  of 
man  ;  not  equality  before  the  law  alone,  nor  yet 
1  Jefferson  was  born  in  1743,  Madison  in  1751,  Gallatin  in  1761. 


MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS.  175 

political  equality,  but  that  absolute  freedom  from 
class  distinction  which  is  true  social  equality;  in 
a  word,  mutual  respect.  But  for  Hamilton  we 
might  be  a  handful  of  petty  states,  in  discordant 
confederation  or  perpetual  war  ;  but  for  Jefferson, 
a  prey  to  the  class  jealousy  which  unsettles  the 
social  relations  and  threatens  the  political  exist 
ence  of  European  states. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SECRETARY  OF   THE  TREASURY. 
FUNDING. 

THE  material  comfort  of  every  people  depends 
more  immediately  upon  the  correct  management  of 
its  finances  than  upon  any  other  branch  of  govern 
ment.  Haute  finance,  to  use  a  French  expression 
for  which  there  is  no  English  equivalent,  demands 
in  its  application  the  faculties  of  organization  and 
administration  in  their  highest  degree.  The  rela 
tions  of  money  to  currency  and  credit,  and  their 
relations  to  industry  and  agriculture,  or  in  modern 
phrase  of  capital  to  labor,  fall  within  its  scope. 
The  history  of  France,  the  nation  which  has  best 
understood  and  applied  true  principles  of  finance, 
supplies  striking  examples  of  the  benefits  a  finance 
minister  of  the  first  order  renders  to  his  country, 
and  the  dangers  of  false  theories.  The  marvellous 
restoration  of  its  prosperity  by  the  genius  of  Col 
bert,  the  ruin  caused  by  the  malign  sciolism  of 
Law,  and  again,  the  revival  of  credit  by  the  skill 
of  Necker,  are  familiar  to  all  students  of  political 
economy.  Nor  has  the  United  States  been  less 


SECRETARY  OF  THE   TREASURY.  177 

favored.     The  names  of  Morris,  Hamilton,  Galla- 
tin,  and  Chase  shine  with  equal  lustre. 

Morris,  the  financier  of  the  Revolution,  was 
called  to  the  administration  of  the  money  depart 
ment  of  the  United  States  government  when  there 
was  no  money  to  administer.  Before  his  appoint 
ment  as  "  Financier  "  the  expenses  of  the  govern 
ment,  military  and  civil,  had  been  met  by  expe 
dients  ;  by  foreign  loans,  lotteries,  and  loan  office 
certificates :  finally  by  continental  money,  or,  more 
properly  speaking,  bills  of  credit  emitted  by  au 
thority  of  Congress  and  made  legal  tender  by  joint 
action  of  Congress  and  the  several  States.  The 
relation  of  coin  to  paper  in  this  motley  currency 
appears  in  the  appendix  to  the  Journal  of  Con 
gress  for  the  year  1778,  when  the  government 
paid  out  in  fourteen  issues  of  paper  currency, 
$62,154,842.63;  in  specie,  $78,666.60 ;  in  French 
livres,  $28,525.00.  The  power  of  taxation  was 
jealously  withheld  by  the  States,  and  Congress 
could  not  go  beyond  recommending  to  them  to 
levy  taxes  for  the  withdrawal  of  the  bills  emit 
ted  by  it  for  their  quotas,  pari  passu  with  their 
issue.  When  the  entire  scheme  of  paper  money 
failed,  the  necessary  supplies  for  the  army  were 
levied  in  kind.  In  the  spring  of  1781  the  affairs 
of  the  Treasury  Department  were  investigated  by 
a  committee  of  Congress,  and  an  attempt  was 
made  to  ascertain  the  precise  condition  of  the 
public  debt.  The  amount  of  foreign  debt  was  ap- 
12 


178  ALBERT  GAL  LATIN. 

proximately  reached,  but  the  record  of  the  do 
mestic  debt  was  inextricably  involved,  and  never 
definitely  discovered.  Morris  soon  brought  order 
out  of  this  chaos.  His  plan  was  to  liquidate  the 
public  indebtedness  in  specie,  and  fund  it  in  in 
terest-bearing  bonds.  The  Bank  of  North  America 
was  established,  the  notes  of  which  were  soon  pre 
ferred  to  specie  as  a  medium  of  exchange.  Silver, 
then  in  general  use  as  the  measure  of  value,  was 
adopted  as  the  single  standard.  The  weight  and 
pureness  of  the  dollar  were  fixed  by  law.  The 
dollar  was  made  the  unit  of  account  and  payment, 
and  subdivisions  were  made  in  a  decimal  ratio. 
This  was  the  dollar  of  our  fathers.  Gouverneur 
Morris,  the  assistant  of  the  Financier,  suggested 
the  decimal  computation,  and  Jefferson  the  dol 
lar  as  the  unit  of  account  and  payment.  The 
board  of  treasury,  which  for  five  years  had  admin 
istered  the  finances  in  a  bungling  way,  was  dis 
solved  by  Congress  in  the  fall  of  1781,  and  Morris 
was  left  in  sole  control.  Semi-annual  statements 
of  the  public  indebtedness  were  now  begun.  The 
expenses  of  the  government  were  steadily  and  in 
flexibly  cut  down  to  meet  the  diminishing  income. 
A  loan  was  negotiated  in  Holland,  and,  with  the 
aid  of  Franklin,  the  amount  of  indebtedness  to 
France  was  established. 

The  public  debt  on  January  1,  1783,  was  $42,- 
000,375,  of  which  $7,885,088  was  foreign;  bearing 
four  and  five  per  cent,  interest;  and  $34,115,290 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      179 

was  held  at  home  at  six  per  cent.  The  total 
amount  of  interest  was  $2,415,956.  No  means 
were  provided  for  the  payment  of  either  principal 
or  interest.  In  July  of  the  previous  year  Morris 
urged  the  wisdom  of  funding  the  public  debt  in  a 
masterly  letter  to  the  President  of  Congress.  On 
December  16  a  sinking  fund  was  provided  for  by  a 
resolution,  which,  though  inadequate  to  the  pur 
pose,  was  at  least  a  declaration  of  principle.  In 
February,  1784,  Morris  notified  Congress  of  his 
intended  retirement  from  office.  He  may  justly 
be  termed  the  father  of  the  American  system  of 
finance.  In  his  administration  he  inflexibly  main 
tained  the  determination,  with  which  he  assumed 
the  office,  to  apply  the  public  funds  to  the  purpose 
to  which  they  were  appropriated.  He  declared 
that  he  would  "  neither  pay  the  interest  of  our 
debts  out  of  the  moneys  which  are  called  for  to 
carry  on  the  war,  nor  pay  the  expenses  of  the 
war  from  the  funds  which  are  called  for  to  pay 
the  interest  of  our  debts."  One  new  feature  of 
Morris's  administration  was  the  beginning  of  the 
sale  of  public  lands. 

On  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Morris,  November, 
1784,  a  new  board  of  treasury  was  charged  with 
the  administration  of  the  finances  and  continued 
in  control  until  September  30,  1788,  when  a  com 
mittee,  raised  to  examine  into  the  affairs  of  the  de 
partment,  rendered  a  pitiful  report  of  mismanage 
ment  for  which  the  Board  had  not  the  excuse  of 


180  ALBERT   GALL  AT  IN. 

their  predecessors  during  the  war.  They  had  only 
to  observe  the  precepts  which  Morris  had  enun 
ciated,  and  to  follow  the  methods  he  had  pre 
scribed,  with  the  aid  of  the  assistants  he  had 
trained.  But  the  taxes  collected  had  not  been 
covered  into  the  Treasury  by  the  receivers.  Large 
sums  advanced  for  secret  service  were  not  ac 
counted  for ;  and  the  entire  system  of  responsibil 
ity  had  been  disregarded.  John  Adams  attributed 
all  the  distresses  at  this  period  to  "a  downright 
ignorance  of  the  nature  of  coin  credit  and  circu 
lation  ; "  an  ignorance  not  yet  dispelled.  More 
truly  could  he  have  said  that  our  distresses  arose 
from  wilful  neglect  of  the  principle  of  accounta 
bility  in  the  public  service. 

The  first  Congress  under  the  new  Constitution 
met  at  New  York  on  March  4,  1789,  but  it  was 
not  until  the  autumn  that  the  executive  adminis 
tration  of  the  government  was  organized  by  the 
creation  of  the  three  departments :  State,  Treas 
ury,  and  War. 

The  bill  establishing  the  Treasury  Department 
passed  Congress  on  September  2,  1789.  Hamil 
ton  was  appointed  Secretary  by  Washington  on 
September  11.  On  September  21  the  House  di 
rected  the  Secretary  to  examine  into  and  report  a 
financial  plan.  On  the  assembling  of  Congress, 
June  14,  1790,  Hamilton  communicated  to  the 
House  his  first  report,  known  as  that  on  public 
credit.  The  boldness  of  Hamilton's  plan  startled 


V 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      181 

and  divided  the  country.  Funding  resolutions 
were  introduced  into  the  House.  The  first,  re 
lating  to  the  foreign  debt,  passed  unanimously; 
the  second,  providing  for  the  liquidation  of  the 
domestic  obligations,  was  sharply  debated,  but  in 
the  end  Hamilton's  scheme  was  adopted.  The 
resolutions  providing  for  the  assumption  of  the 
state  debts,  which  he  embodied  in  his  report, 
aroused  an  opposition  still  more  formidable,  and 
it  was  not  until  August  4  that  by  political  ma 
chinery  this  part  of  his  plan  received  the  assent 
of  Congress.  To  provide  for  the  interest  on  the 
debt  and  the  expenses  of  the  government,  the  im 
port  and  navigation  duties  were  raised  to  yield 
the  utmost  revenue  available ;  but,  in  the  tem 
per  of  Congress,  the  excise  law  was  not  pressed  at 
this  session.  The  Secretary  had  securely  laid  the 
foundations  of  his  policy.  Time  and  sheer  neces 
sity  would  compel  the  completion  of  his  work  in 
essential  accord  with  his  original  design.  The 
President's  message  at  the  opening  of  the  winter 
session  added  greatly  to  the  prestige  of  Hamil 
ton's  policy  by  calling  attention  to  the  great  pros 
perity  of  the  country  and  the  remarkable  rise  in 
public  credit.  The  excise  law,  modified  to  apply 
to  distilled  spirits,  passed  the  House  in  January. 
The  principle  of  a  direct  tax  was  admitted.  On 
December  14,  1790,  in  obedience  to  an  order  of 
the  House  requiring  the  Secretary  to  report  fur 
ther  provision  for  the  public  credit,  Hamilton  com* 


182  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

municated  his  plans  for  a  national  bank.  Next  in 
order  came  the  establishment  of  a  national  mint. 
Thus  in  two  sessions  of  Congress,  and  in  the 
space  of  little  more  than  a  year  from  the  time 
when  he  took  charge  of  the  Treasury,  Hamilton 
conceived  and  carried  to  successful  conclusion  an 
entire  scheme  of  finance. 

One  more  measure  in  the  comprehensive  sys 
tem  of  public  credit  crowned  the  solid  structure  of 
which  the  funding  of  the  debt  was  the  corner 
stone.  This  was  the  establishment  of  the  sinking 
fund  for  the  redemption  of  the  debt.  Hamilton 
conformed  his  plan  to  the  maxim,  which,  to  use  his 
words,  "  has  been  supposed  capable  of  giving  im 
mortality  to  credit,  namely,  that  with  the  creation 
of  debts  should  be  incorporated  the  means  of  ex 
tinguishment,  which  are  twofold.  1st.  The  estab 
lishing,  at  the  time  of  contracting  a  debt,  funds 
for  the  reimbursement  of  the  principal,  as  well  as 
for  the  payment  of  interest  within  a  determinate 
period.  2d.  The  making  it  a  part  of  the  contract, 
that  the  fund  so  established  shall  be  inviolably 
applied  to  the  object."  The  ingenuity  and  skill 
with  which  this  master  of  financial  science  man 
aged  the  Treasury  Department  for  more  than  five 
years  need  no  word  of  comment.  Nor  do  they 
fall  within  the  scope  of  this  outline  of  the  features 
of  his  policy.  His  reports  are  the  text-book  of 
American  political  economy.  Whoever  would 
grasp  its  principles  must  seek  them  in  this  limpid 


SECRETARY  OF  THE   TREASURY.  183 

source,  and  study  the  methods  he  applied  to  rev 
enue  and  loans.  Well  might  Webster  say  of  him 
in  lofty  praise,  "  He  smote  the  rock  of  national  re 
sources,  and  abundant  streams  of  revenue  gushed 
forth  ;  he  touched  the  dead  corpse  of  Public  Credit, 
and  it  sprung  upon  its  feet." 

On  the  resignation  of  Hamilton,  January  31, 
1795,  Washington  invited  Wolcott,  who  was  fa 
miliar  with  the  views  of  Hamilton  and  on  such 
intimate  terms  with  him  that  he  could  always 
have  his  advice  in  any  difficult  emergency,  to  take 
the  post.  Wolcott  had  been  connected  with  the 
Department  from  its  organization,  first  as  auditor, 
afterwards  as  comptroller  of  the  Treasury.  He 
held  the  Treasury  until  nearly  the  end  of  Adams's 
administration.  On  November  8,  1800,  upon  the 
open  breach  between  Mr.  Adams  and  the  Hamil 
ton  wing  of  the  Federal  party,  Wolcott,  whose 
sympathies  were  wholly  with  his  old  chief,  ten 
dered  his  resignation,  to  take  effect  at  the  close 
of  the  year.  On  December  31  Mr.  Samuel  Dex 
ter  was  appointed  to  administer  the  Department. 
But  the  days  of  the  Federal  party  were  now 
numbered :  it  fell  of  its  own  dissensions,  "  wounded 
in  the  house  of  its  friends." 

There  is  nothing  in  the  administration  of  the 
finances  by  Wolcott  to  attract  comment.  He  man 
aged  the  details  of  the  Department  with  integrity 
and  skill.  On  his  retirement  a  committee  of  the 
House  on  the  condition  of  the  Treasury  was  ap- 


184  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

pointed.  No  similar  examination  had  been  made 
since  May  22,  1794.  On  January  28,  1801,  Mr. 
Otis,  chairman  of  the  committee,  submitted  the  re 
sults  of  the  investigation  in  an  unanimous  report 
that  the  business  of  the  Treasury  Department 
had  been  conducted  with  regularity,  fidelity,  and 
a  regard  to  economy  ;  that  the  disbursements  of 
money  had  always  been-  made  pursuant  to  law, 
and  generally  that  the  financial  concerns  of  the 
country  had  been  left  by  the  late  Secretary  in  a 
state  of  good  order  and  prosperity.  During  his 
six  years  of  administration  of  the  finances  Wol- 
cott  negotiated  six  loans,  amounting  in  all  to 
$2, 820, 000.  The  emergencies  were  extraordi 
nary,  —  the  expenses  of  the  suppression  of  the 
Whiskey  Insurrection  in  1794,  and  the  sum  re 
quired  to  effect  a  treaty  of  peace  with  Algiers  in 
1795.  To  fund  these  sums  Mr.  Wolcott  had  re 
course  to  an  expedient  which  marked  an  era  in 
American  finance.  This  was  the  creation  of  new 
stock,  subscribed  for  at  home.  No  loan  had  been 
previously  placed  by  the  government  among  its 
own  citizens.  Between  1795  and  1798,  four  and 
a  half,  five,  and  six  per  cent,  stocks  were  created. 
In  1798  the  condition  of  the  country  was  embar 
rassing.  There  was  a  threatening  prospect  of 
war.  Foreign  loans  were  precarious  and  improvi 
dent  ;  the  market  rate  of  interest  was  eight  per 
cent.  Under  these  circumstances  an  eight  per 
cent,  stock  was  created,  not  redeemable  until 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      185 

1809.  An  Act  of  March  3,  1795,  provided  for 
vesting  in  the  sinking  fund  the  surplus  revenues 
of  each  year. 

In  the  formation  of  the  first  Republican  cabinet 
Mr.  Gallatin  was  obviously  Mr.  Jefferson's  first 
choice  for  the  Treasury.  The  appointment  was 
nevertheless  attended  with  some  difficulties  of  a 
political  and  party  nature.  The  paramount  im 
portance  of  the  Department  was  a  legacy  of 
Hamilton's  genius.  Its  possession  was  the  Feder 
alist  stronghold,  and  the  Senate,  which  held  the 
confirming  power,  was  still  controlled  by  a  Fed 
eralist  majority.  To  them  Mr.  Gallatin  was  more 
obnoxious  than  any  other  of  the  Republican  lead 
ers.  In  the  few  days  that  he  held  a  seat  in  the 
Senate  (1793)  he  offended  Hamilton,  and  aroused 
the  hostility  of  the  friends  of  the  Secretary  by  a 
call  for  information  as  to  the  condition  of  the 
Treasury.  As  member  of  Congress  in  1796  he 
questioned  Hamilton's  policy,  and  during  Adams's 
entire  administration  was  a  perpetual  thorn  in  the! 
sides  of  Hamilton's  successors  in  the  department. 
The  day  after  his  election,  February  18,  1801,  Mr. 
Jefferson  communicated  to  Mr.  Gallatin  the  names 
of  the  gentlemen  he  had  already  determined  upon 
for  his  cabinet,  and  tendered  him  the  Treasury. 
The  only  alternative  was  Madison  ;  but  he,  with 
all  his  reputation  as  a  statesman  and  party  leader, 
was  without  skill  as  a  financier,  and  in  the  de 
bate  on  the  Funding  Bill  in  1790  had  shown  his 


186  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

ignorance  in  the  impracticability  of  his  plans.  If 
Jefferson  ever  entertained  the  thought  of  nom 
inating  Madison  to  the  Treasury,  political  neces 
sity  absolutely  forbade  it.  That  necessity  Mr. 
Gallatin,  by  his  persistent  assaults  on  the  financial 
policy  of  the  Federalists,  had  himself  created,  and 
he  alone  of  the  Republican  leaders  was  competent 
to  carry  out  the  reforms  in  the  administration  of 
the  government,  and  to  contrive  the  consequent 
reduction  in  revenue  and  taxation,  which  were 
cardinal  points  of  Republican  policy.  Public 
opinion  had  assigned  Gallatin  to  the  post,  and  the 
newspapers  announced  his  nomination  before  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  elected,  and  before  he  had  given 
any  indication  of  his  purpose.  To  his  wife  Mr. 
Gallatin  expressed  some  doubt  whether  his  abili 
ties  were  equal  to  the  office,  and  whether  the 
Senate  would  confirm  him,  and  said,  certainly 
with  sincerity,  'that  he  would  not  be  sorry  nor 
hurt  in  his  feelings  if  his  nomination  should  be 
rejected,  for  exclusively  of  the  immense  responsi 
bility,  labor,  etc.,  attached  to  the  intended  office, 
another  plan  which  would  be  much  more  agreeable 
to  him  and  to  her  had  been  suggested,  not  by  his 
political  friends,  but  by  his  New  York  friends.' 
He  was  by  no  means  comfortable  in  his  finances, 
and  he  had  already  formed  a  plan  of  studying 
law  and  removing  to  New  York.  He  had  made  " 
up  his  mind  to  leave  the  western  country,  which 
would  necessarily  end  his  congressional  career. 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  187 

His  wife  was  forlorn  in  his  absence,  and  suffered 
so  many  hardships  in  her  isolated  residence  that 
he  felt  no  reluctance  to  the  change.  To  one  of 
his  wife's  family  he  wrote  at  this  time :  — 

"  As  a  political  situation,  the  place  of  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  is  doubtless  more  eligible  and  congenial  to  my 
habits ;  but  it  is  more  laborious  and  responsible  than  any 
other,  and  the  same  industry  which  will  be  necessary  to 
fulfil  its  duties,  applied  to  another  object,  would  at  the 
end  of  two  years  have  left  me  in  the  possession  of  a  pro 
fession  which  I  might  have  exercised  either  in  Phila 
delphia  or  New  York.  But  our  plans  are  all  liable  to 
uncertainty,  and  I  must  now  cheerfully  undertake  that 
which  had  never  been  the  object  of  my  ambition  or 
wishes." 

Well  might  he  hesitate  as  he  witnessed  the  dis 
tress  which  had  overtaken  the  great  party  which 
for  twelve  years  had  held  the  posts  of  political 
honor.  Fortunately,  perhaps  for  himself  and  cer 
tainly  for  his  party  and  the  country,  the  proposi 
tion  came  at  a  time  when  he  had  definitively  deter 
mined  upon  a  change  of  career.  His  situation  was 
difficult.  The  hostility  of  the  Federal  senators, 
and  the  great  exertions  which  were  being  made  to 
defeat  the  appointment,  led  him  to  the  opinion 
that,  if  presented  on  March  4,  it  would  be  rejected. 
There  was  the  alternative  of  delay  until  after  that 
date,  which  would  involve  a  postponement  of  the 
confirmation  until  the  meeting  of  Congress  in 
December,  but  there  was  no  certainty  that  it 


188  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

would  then  be  ratified.  Meanwhile  he  would  be 
compelled  to  remove  to  Washington  at  some  sacri 
fice  and  expense.  He  therefore  at  first  positively 
refused  "  to  come  in  on  any  terms  but  a  confirma 
tion  by  the  Senate  first  given."  He  was  finally 
induced  to  comply  with  the  general  wish  of  his 
political  friends.  The  appointment  was  withheld 
by  the  President  that  the  feeling  in  the  Senate 
might  be  judged  from  its  action  on  the  rest  of  the 
nominations  submitted.  They  were  all  approved, 
and  Mr.  Dexter  consented  to  hold  over  until  his 
successor  should  be  appointed.  Thus  Mr.  Galla- 
tin's  convenience  was  entirely  consulted.  He  re 
mained  in  Washington  a  few  days  to  confer  with 
the  President  as  to  the  general  conduct  of  the 
administration,  and  on  March  14  set  out  for  Fay- 
ette  to  put  his  affairs  in  order  and  to  bring  his 
wife  and  family  to  Washington.  On  May  14 
Jefferson  wrote  to  Macon,  "  The  arrival  of  Mr. 
Gallatin  yesterday  completed  the  organization  of 
our  administration." 

Mr  Gallatin  soon  realized  the  magnitude  of  his 
task.  He  did  nothing  by  halves.  To  whatever 
work  he  had  to  do,  he  brought  the  best  of  his 
faculty.  No  man  ever  better  deserved  the  epithet 
of  "thorough."  He  searched  till  he  found  the 
principle  of  every  measure  with  which  he  had  con 
cern  and  understood  every  detail  of  its  applica 
tion.  This  perfect  knowledge  of  every  subject 
which  he  investigated  was  the  secret  of  his  politi- 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  189 

cal  success.  As  a  committee  man,  he  was  incom 
parable.  No  one  could  be  better  equipped  for  the 
direction  of  the  Treasury  Department  than  he, 
but  he  was  not  satisfied  with  direction  ;  he  would 
manage  also ;  and  he  went  to  the  work  with  un 
tiring  energy.  A  quarter  of  a  century  later  he 
said  of  it,  in  a  letter  to  his  son,  "  To  fill  that  of 
fice  in  the  manner  I  did,  and  as  it  ought  to  be 
filled,  is  a  most  laborious  task  and  labor  of  the 
most  tedious  kind.  To  fit  myself  for  it,  to  be 
able  to  understand  thoroughly,  to  embrace  and 
control  all  its  details,  took  from  me,  during  the 
two  first  years  I  held  it,  every  hour  of  the  day 
and  many  of  the  night  and  had  nearly  brought 
on  a  pulmonary  complaint.  I  filled  the  office 
twelve  years  and  was  fairly  worn  out." 

Mr.  Gallatin  first  drew  public  attention  to  his 
knowledge  of  finance  in  the  Pennsylvania  Legis 
lature.  An  extract  from  his  memorandum  of  his 
three  years'  service,  gives  the  best  account  of  this 
incident.  In  it  appear  the  carefully  matured  con 
victions  which  he  inflexibly  maintained. 

"  The  report  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means 
of  the  session  1790-1791  (presented  by  Gurney,  chair 
man)  was  entirely  prepared  by  me,  known  to  be  so,  and 
laid  the  foundation  of  my  reputation.  I  was  quite  as 
tonished  at  the  general  encomiums  bestowed  upon  it, 
and  was  not  at  all  aware  that  I  had  done  so  well.  It 
was  perspicuous  and  comprehensive  ;  but  I  am  confident 
that  its  true  merit,  and  that  which  gained  me  the  general 


190  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

confidence,  was  its  being  founded  in  strict  justice  with 
out  the  slightest  regard  to  party  feelings  or  popular 
prejudices.  The  principles  assumed,  and  which  were 
carried  into  effect,  were  the  immediate  reimbursement 
and  extinction  of  the  state  paper  money,  the  immediate 
payment  in  specie  of  all  the  current  expenses  or  war 
rants  on  the  Treasury  (the  postponement  and  uncer 
tainty  of  which  had  given  rise  to  shameful  and  corrupt 
speculations),  and  provision  for  discharging,  without  de 
falcation,  every  debt  and  engagement  previously  recog 
nized  by  the  State.  In  conformity  with  this,  the  State 
paid  to  its  creditors  the  difference  between  the  nominal 
amount  of  the  state  debt  assumed  by  the  United  States 
and  the  rate  at  which  it  was  funded  by  the  act  of 
Congress. 

"  The  proceeds  of  the  public  lands,  together  with  the 
arrears,  were  the  fund  which  not  only  discharged  all  the 
public  debts,  but  left  a  large  surplus.  The  apprehension . 
that  this  would  be  squandered  by  the  Legislature  was 
the  principal  inducement  for  chartering  the  Bank  of 
Pennsylvania  with  a  capital  of  two  millions  of  dollars, 
of  which  the  State  subscribed  one  half.  This  and  simi 
lar  subsequent  investments  enabled  Pennsylvania  to  de 
fray  out  of  the  dividends  all  the  expenses  of  govern 
ment  without  any  direct  tax  during  the  forty  ensuing 
years,  and  till  the  adoption  of  the  system  of  internal 
improvement,  which  required  new  resources." 

This  report  was  printed  in  the  Journal  of  the 
House,  February  8, 1791.  The  next  year  he  made 
a  report  on  the  same  subject  which  was  printed 
February  22,  1792. 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      191 

But  his  equal  grasp  of  larger  subjects  was 
shown  in  his  sketch  of  the  finances  of  the  United  / 
States,  which  he  published  in  November,  1796. 
It  presents  under  three  sections  the  revenues,  the 
expenses,  and  the  debts  of  the  United  States,  each 
subdivided  into  special  heads.  The  arguments  are 
supported  by  elaborate  tabular  statements.  No 
such  exhaustive  examination  had  been  made  of  the 
state  of  the  American  finances.  The  one  cardinal 
principle  which  he  laid  down  was  the  extinguish 
ment  of  debt.  He  severely  criticised  Hamilton's 
methods  of  funding,  and  outlined  those  which  he 
himself  later  applied.  He  charged  upon  Hamil 
ton  direct  violations  of  law  in  the  application  of 
money,  borrowed  as  principal,  to  the  payment  of 
interest  on  that  principal.  The  public  funds  he 
regarded  as  three  in  number :  1st,  the  sinking 
fund  ;  2d,  the  surplus  fund  ;  3d,  the  general  fund. 

In  July,  1800,  Mr.  Gallatin  published  a  second 
pamphlet,  "  Views  of  the  Public  Debt,  Receipts, 
and  Expenditures  of  the  United  States,"  the  object 
of  the  inquiry  being  to  ascertain  the  result  of  the 
fiscal  operations  of  the  government  under  the  Con 
stitution.  The  entire  field  of  American  finance  is 
examined  from  its  beginning.  He  severely  con 
demns  the  mode  of  assumption  of  tne  state  debts 
in  Hamilton's  original  plan,  and  no  doubt  his 
strictures  are  technically  correct.  The  debts  as 
sumed  for  debtor  States  were  not  due  by  the 
United  States,  nor  was  there  any  moral  reason  for 


192  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

their  assumption.  But  the  assumption  was  sound 
financial  policy,  and  all  the  cost  to  the  nation  was 
amply  repaid  by  the  order  which  their  assumption 
drew  out  of  chaos,  and  the  vigor  given  to  the 
general  credit  by  the  strengthening  of  that  of  its 
parts.  The  course  of  the  Federalists  and  Republi 
cans  on  this  question  shows  that  the  former  had  at 
heart  the  welfare  of  all  the  States  while  the  latter 
confined  their  interest  to  their  own  body  politic. 

Had  Mr.  Gallatin  never  penned  another  line  on 
finance,  these  two  remarkable  papers  would  place 
him  in  the  first  rank  of  economists  and  statisti 
cians.  There  are  no  errors  in  his  figures,  no  flaws 
in  his  reasoning,  no  faults  in  his  deductions.  In 
construction  and  detail,  as  parts  of  a  complete 
financial  system  of  administration,  they  are  be 
yond  criticism.  Opinions  may  differ  as  to  the 
ends  sought,  but  riot  as  to  the  means  to  those  ends. 

For  a  long  period  Mr.  Gallatin  found  no  more 
time  for  essays  ;  he  was  now  to  apply  his  meth 
ods.  These  may  be  traced  in  his  printed  treas 
ury  reports,  which  are  lucid  and  instructive.  He 
was  appointed  to  the  Treasury  on  May  14,  1801, 
as  appears  by  the  official  record  in  the  State  De 
partment.  Before  he  entered  on  the  duties  of 
the  office  he  submitted  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  March 
14,  1801,  some  rough  sketches  of  the  financial  sit 
uation,  and  suggested  the  general  outlines  of  his 
policy.  He  insisted  upon  a  curtailment  in  the  ap 
propriations  for  the  naval  and  military  establish- 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      193 

merits,  the  only  saving  adequate  to  the  repeal  of  all 
internal  duties  ;  and  upon  the  discharge  of  the  for 
eign  debt  within  the  period  of  its  obligation.  He 
estimated  that  the  probable  receipts  and  expen 
ditures  for  the  year  1801  would  leave  a  surplus 
of  more  than  two  millions  of  dollars  applicable  to 
the  redemption  of  the  debt. 

On  taking  personal  charge  of  the  Treasury  De 
partment,  his  first  business  was  to  get  rid  of  the 
arrears  of  current  business  which  had  accumulated 
since  the  retirement  of  Wolcott ;  his  next,  to  per 
fect  the  internal  revenue  system,  so  far  as  it  could 
be  remedied  without  new  legislation.  The  entire 
summer  of  1801  was  passed  in  "  arranging,  or 
rather  procuring  correct  statements  amongst  the 
Treasury  documents,"  a  task  of  such  difficulty 
that  he  was  unwilling,  on  November  15,  to  arrive 
at  an  estimate  of  the  revenue  within  half  a  mil 
lion,  or  to  commit  himself  to  any  opinion  as  to  the 
feasibility  of  abolishing  the  internal  revenues.  In 
his  "  notes  "  submitted  to  Jefferson  upon  the  draft 
of  his  first  message,  there  are  several  passages  of 
interest  which  show  Mr.  Gallatin's  logical  habit 
of  searching  out  economic  causes.  Under  the 
head  of  finances,  he  remarks,  "  The  revenue  has 
increased  more  than  in  the  same  ratio  with  popu 
lation  :  1st,  because  our  wealth  has  increased  in 
a  greater  ratio  than  population  :  2d,  because  the 
sea-ports  and  towns,  which  consume  imported  arti 
cles  much  more  than  the  country,  have  increased 
13 


194  ALBERT  GALLAT1N. 

in  a  greater  proportion."  The  final  paragraph  in 
these  "  notes  "  is  a  synopsis  of  his  entire  scheme 
of  administration. 

"  There  is  but  one  subject  not  mentioned  in  the  mes 
sage  which  I  feel  extremely  anxious  to  see  recommended. 
It  is  generally  that  Congress  should  adopt  such  meas 
ures  as  will  effectually  guard  against  misapplications  of 
public  moneys,  by  making  specific  appropriations  when 
ever  practicable  ;  by  providing  against  the  application  of 
moneys  drawn  from  the  Treasury  under  an  appropria 
tion  to  any  other  object  or  to  any  greater  amount  than 
that  for  which  they  have  been  drawn  ;  by  limiting  dis 
cretionary  power  in  the  application  of  that  money; 
whether  by  heads  of  department  or  by  any  other  agents  ; 
and  by  rendering  every  person  who  receives  public 
moneys  from  the  Treasury  as  immediately,  promptly, 
and  effectually  accountable  to  the  accounting  officer 
(the  comptroller)  as  practicable.  The  great  characteris 
tic,  the  flagrant  vice,  of  the  late  administration  has  been 
total  disregard  of  laws,  and  application  of  public  moneys 
by  the  Department  to  objects  for  which  they  were  not 
appropriate." 

Outlines  for  a  system  of  specific  appropriations 
were  inclosed. 

That  the  mission  of  Jefferson's  administration 
was  the  reduction  of  the  debt,  Gallatin  set  forth 
in  his  next  letter  of  November  16,  1801.  "  I  am 
firmly  of  opinion  that  if  the  present  administra 
tion  and  Congress  do  not  take  the  most  effective 
measures  for  that  object,  the  debt  will  be  entailed 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  195 

on  us  and  the  ensuing  generations,  together  with 
all  the  systems  which  support  it,  and  which  it 
supports."  On  the  other  hand  he  says,  "  If  this 
administration  shall  not  reduce  taxes,  they  never 
will  be  permanently  reduced."  To  reduce  both 
the  debt  and  the  taxes  was  as  much  a  political 
as  a  financial  problem.  To  solve  it  required  the 
reduction  to  a  minimum  of  the  departments  of 
War  and  Marine.  But  Mr.  Jefferson  was  not  a 
practical  statesman.  His  individuality  was  too 
strong  for  much  surrender  of  opinion.  He  stated 
the  case  very  mildly  when  he  wrote  in  his  retire 
ment  that  he  sometimes  differed  in  opinion  from 
some  of  his  friends,  from  those  whose  views  were 
as  "  pure  and  as  sound  as  his  own."  It  was  not 
his  habit  to  consult  his  entire  cabinet  except  on 
general  measures.  The  heads  of  each  department 
set  their  views  before  him  separately.  Under 
this  system  Mr.  Gallatin  was  never  able  to  realize 
that  harmonious  interdependence  of  departments 
and  subordination  of  ways  to  means  which  were 
his  ideal  of  cabinet  administration. 

The  successful  application  of  Mr.  Gallatin's 
plan  would  have  subordinated  all  the  executive 
departments  to  the  Treasury.  The  theory  was  per- " 
feet,  but  it  took  no  account  of  the  greed  of  office, 
the  jealousies  of  friends,  the  opposition  of  enemies, 
and  the  unknown  factor  of  foreign  relations.  A 
speck  on  the  horizon  would  cloud  the  peaceful  pros 
pect,  a  hostile  threat  derange  the  intricate  machin 
ery  by  which  the  delicate  financial  balance  was 


196  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

maintained.  Mr.  Gallatin  was  fast  realizing  the 
magnitude  of  his  undertaking,  in  which  he  was 
greatly  embarrassed  by  the  difficulty  of  finding 
faithful  examining  clerks,  on  whose  correctness 
and  fidelity  a  just  settlement  of  all  accounts 
depends.  The  number  of  independent  offices  at 
tached  to  the  Treasury  made  the  task  still  more 
arduous.  He  wrote  to  Jefferson  at  this  time,  "  It 
will  take  me  twelve  months  before  I  can  thor 
oughly  understand  every  detail  of  all  these  several 
offices.  Current  business  and  the  more  general 
and  important  duties  of  the  office  do  not  permit 
me  to  learn  the  lesser  details,  but  incidentally 
and  by  degrees.  Until  I  know  them  all  I  dare 
not  touch  the  machine."  One  of  the  acquire 
ments  which  he  considered  indispensable  for  a 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  was  a  "  thorough  knowl 
edge  of  book-keeping."  The  recollection  of  his 
persistent  demands  for  information  from  Hamilton 
and  Wolcott  during  his  congressional  career  would 
have  stung  the  conscience  of  an  ordinary  man. 
But  Gallatin  was  not  an  ordinary  man.  He  asked 
nothing  of  others  which  he  himself  was  not  will 
ing  to  perform.  His  ideal  was  high,  but  he  reached 
its  summit.  It  seems  almost  as  if,  in  his  persistent 
demand  that  money  accountability  should  be  im 
posed  by  law  upon  the  Treasury  Department,  he 
sought  to  set  the  measure  of  his  own  duty,  while 
in  the  requirement  that  it  should  be  extended  to 
the  other  departments,  he  pledged  himself  to  the 
perfect  accomplishment  of  that  duty  in  his  own. 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  197 

In  his  first  report  to  Congress,1  made  December 
18, 1801,  Mr.  Gallatin  submitted  his  financial  esti 
mate  for  the  year  1802. 


REVENUE. 

Imposts  .    .    .  $9,500,000 

Lands        I             450,000 
Postages   ) 
Internal  Rev.          650,000 

EXPENDITURES. 

Int.  on  debts  .  $7,100,000 
Civil  List  .     .        980,000 
Army    .     .     .     1,420,000 
Navy     .     .     .     1,100,000 

$10,600,000 

$10,600,000 

Mr.  Wolcott,  in  his  last  report  to  the  Com 
missioners  of  the  Sinking  Fund,  stated  the  amount 
in  the  Treasury  to  its  credit  at  1500,718.55. 
Mr.  Gallatin  denied  that  there  was  any  such  sur 
plus,  but  said  that  instead  of  a  credit  balance 
the  Treasury  books  showed  a  deficiency  of  $930,- 
128.64  on  the  aggregate  revenue  from  the  estab 
lishment  of  the  government  to  the  close  of  the 
year  1799.  EUioj;,  in  his  "  Fundinj^System,"  said 
concerning  this  once  vexed  "controversy,  that  it 
was  difficult  to  reconcile  such  a  diversity  of  opin 
ion  on  so  intricate  a  subject ;  and  concerning  the 
official' statements  of  Hamilton  and  Wolcott,  that 
it  was  hardly  to  be  credited  that  they  were  so  su 
perficial  or  imperfect.  Mr.  Gallatin  himself  fur 
nishes  the  apology  that  the  difference  might  arise 
from  "  entries  made  or  omitted  on  erroneous  prin 
ciples."  To  the  Federal  financiers  the  palliation 
was  as  offensive  as  the  charge,  and  rankled  long 

1  The  first  Annual  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
This  was  under  the  Supplementary  Treasury  Act. 


198  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

and  sore.  If  it  were  not  possible,  when  Elliot 
made  an  examination,  to  arrive  at  the  precise 
facts,  it  is  certainly  now  a  secret  as  secure  from 
discovery  as  the  lost  sibylline  leaves. 

Mr.  Gallatin  stated   the    debt   of    the  United 
States 

On  January  1,  1801,  at   .     .     $80,161,207.60 

On  January  1,  1802,  at   .     .       77,881,890.29 

Reduction $2,279,317.31 

This  difference  was  the  amount  of  principal  paid 
during  the  year  1801,  the  result  of  the  manage 
ment  of  his  predecessors.  On  December  18,  1801, 
Mr.  Gallatin  entered  upon  an  examination  of  the 
time  in  which  the  total  debt  might  be  discharged, 
and  showed  that,  by  the  annual  application  of 
$7,300,000  to  the  principal  and  interest  the  debt 
would  in  eight  years,  i.  e.  on  January  1,  1810,  be 
reduced  (by  the  payment  of  $32,289,000  of  the 
principal)  to  $45,592,739.59,  and  that  the  same 
annual  sum  of  $7,300,000  would  discharge  the 
whole  debt  by  the  year  1817.  The  revenues  of 
the  Union  he  found  sufficient  to  defray  all  the  cur 
rent  expenses.  In  his  report  to  Congress  at  the 
beginning  of  the  session  he  designated  this  sum 
of  $7,300,000  to  be  set  aside  from  the  revenues, 
and  Congress  gave  the  requisite  authority.  An 
extract  from  a  tabular  statement  submitted  to 
the  House  of  Representatives,  April  16,  1810, 
will  show  how  nearly  Mr.  Gallatin  approached  the 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY. 


199 


result  at  which  he  aimed,  and  the  nature  of  the 
embarrassment  he  encountered  on  the  path. 


Years. 

Amount  of 
Public  Debt 
January  1st. 

Payments 
on  Principal. 

Debt  Con 
tracted. 

Annual  In 
crease. 

Annual 
Decrease. 

1802 
1803 

§50,712,632.25 
77,054,686.30 

$3,657,945.96 
5.627,565.42 

$15,000,000* 

$9,372,434.58 

$3,657,948.95 

1804 

86,427,120.88 

4414,970.38 

- 

- 

4,114,970.38 

1805 

82,312,150.60 

6,588,879.84 

_ 

_ 

6,588,879.84 

1806 

75,723,270-66 

6,504,872.02 

_ 

_ 

6,504,872.02 

1807 

69,218,398.64 

4,022,080.67 

_ 

- 

4,022,080.67 

1808 

65,196,317.97 

8,173,125.88 

_ 

_ 

8,173,125.88 

1809 

57,023,192  09 

3,850,889.77 

_ 

- 

3,850,889.77 

1810 

53,172,302.32 

- 

- 

~ 

- 

1802  . 
1810  . 


*  Louisiana  purchase. 

.     $80,712,632.25  Decrease     .    .    .    36,912,764.51 

.       63,172,302.32  Increase      .    .    .      9,372,434.58 

Decrease  in  8  yrs.  $27,540,329.93 


$27,540,329.93 

From  this  it  appears  that,  notwithstanding  the 
extraordinary  increase  of  the  principal  by  the 
amount  of  the  Louisiana  purchase,  Mr.  Gallatin 
contrived  a  reduction  of  127,540,329.93.  But  if 
to  this  be  added  the  true  reduction  for  the  year 
1803,  namely,  the  difference  between  the  Louis 
iana  debt,  115,000,000,  and  the  increase  for  that 
year,  by  reason  of  that  purchase,  $9,372,434.56, 
say  16,627,565.43,  the  reduction  is  found  to  be, 
and  but  for  that  disturbing  cause  would  have 
reached,  $34,167,895.35,  a  sum  exceeding  by  $1,- 
878,895.35  that  estimated  by  Mr.  Gallatin  in  his 
report  of  1801  as  the  amount  of  eight  years'  re 
duction,  namely,  $32,289,000.00. 

The  ways  and  means  of  this  remarkable  exam 
ple  of  financial  management  appear  in  the  follow 
ing  extracts  from  Elliott's  synoptical  statement : 


200 


ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 


I  SI 


511 


1 

~i  r: 


II 


§ 

$40,306,413.88 

38 

i! 
|i 

i 

I. 

S 

32,258,658.68 
32,927,739.85 

s? 

Naval 

Establish 
ment. 

$99,299.88  '$8,070,777.52 

279,500.00  '  5,432,049.15 
849,700.00  i  «,853,673.79 

1,129,200.00  '  12,285,722.94 

III 

n 
1 

§ 

301,968.66 
316,806.16 

618,774.82 

1 

j 

4,549,572.11 
6,126,656.97 

10,676,229.08 

Miscel 
laneous. 

<*• 

1,169,601.87 
1,721,876.87 

i 

I 

* 

i. 

i 

* 

Foreign 
Intercourse 
including 
Awards. 

$1,793,879.57 

3,144,093.00 
5,441,869.24 

5 

$2,329,433.08 

2,297,648.17 
2,616,772.77 

3 

Four  years  ending 
December  31. 

Adams,  1800. 

Jefferson,  1804. 
1808. 

SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  201 

The  purchase  of  Louisiana  was  the  extraordi 
nary  financial  measure  of  Jefferson's  first  presi 
dential  term.  Though  the  new  obligation  for  the 
consideration  money,  fifteen  millions  of  dollars, 
was  a  large  sum  in  proportion  to  the  total  existing 
debt  of  the  United  States,  it  did  not  in  the  least 
derange  Gallatin's  plan  of  funding  and  reduction, 
but  was  brought  without  friction  within  his  gen 
eral  scheme.  With  the  tennis  of  the  contract 
Gallatin  had  nothing  to  do.  They  were  arranged 
by  Livingston  and  Monroe,  the  American  com 
missioners,  the  intervention  of  the  houses  of  Hope 
and  the  Barings  being  a  part  of  the  understand 
ing  between  the  commissioners  and  the  French 
government.  These  bankers  engaged  to  make  the 
money  payments  and  take  six  per  cent,  stock  of 
the  United  States  at  seventy-eight  and  one  half 
cents  on  the  dollar.  With  this  price  Mr.  Gallatin 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  satisfied,  though  of 
course  he  interposed  no  objection  to  the  terms; 
but  to  Jefferson  he  wrote,  August  31,  1803,  that 
the  low  price  at  which  that  stock  had  been  sold, 
was  "  not  ascribable  to  the  state  of  public  credit 
nor  to  any  act  of  your  administration,  and  par 
ticularly  of  the  Treasury  Department ; "  and  he 
adds  in  a  postscript,  "at  that  period  our  threes 
were  in  England  worth  one  per  cent,  more  at  mar 
ket  than  the  English." 

The  arrangements  being  completed,  Jefferson 
called  Congress  together  in  October,  1803,  for  a 


202  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

ratification  of  the  treaty;  the  commissioners,  by 
virtue  of  the  authority  granted  them,  had  already 
guarantied  the  advance  by  the  Barings  of  ten  mil 
lion  livres  (12,000,000).  On  October  25,  1803, 
Gallatin  made  a  report  to  Congress  on  the  state 
of  the  finances.  It  showed  a  reduction  of  the 
public  debt  in  the  two  and  one  half  years  of  his 
management,  April  1,  1801,  to  September  30, 
1803,  of  112,702,404,00.  The  only  question  to  be 
considered  was  whether  any  additional  revenues 
were  wanted  to  provide  for  the  new  debt  which 
would  result  from  the  purchase  of  Louisiana. 

The  sum  called  for  by  treaty,  fifteen  millions, 
consisted  of  two  items :  1st,  111,250,000  payable 
to  the  government  of  France  in  a  stock  bearing 
an  interest  of  six  per  cent,  payable  in  Europe,  and 
the  principal  to  be  discharged  at  the  Treasury  of 
the  United  States ;  2d,  a  sum  which  could  not  ex 
ceed,  but  might  fall  short  of,  $3,750,000,  payable 
in  specie  at  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  to 
American  citizens  having  claims  of  a  certain  de 
scription  upon  the  government  of  France. 
^  It  is  interesting  here  to  note  Mr.  Gallatin's  dis 
tinction  between  the  place  of  payment  of  interest 
and  principal^ as  a  new  departure  in  American 
finance.  The  prmcfyal  and  interest  of  foreign 
loans  had  up  to  that  period  been  paid  abroad. 
But  a  United  States  stock  was  an  obligation  of  a 
different  character  and  properly  payable  at  home. 
In  the  large  negotiations  which  Secretary  Chaso 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  203 

had  in  1862  with  the  Treasury  Note  Committee 
of  the  Associated  Banks,1  this  policy  was  matter 
of  grave  debate.  The  determined  American  pride 
of  Mr.  Chase  prevailed,  and  both  the  principal 
and  interest  of  the  loans  created  were  made  pay 
able  at  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States.  These 
are  small  matters  in  their  financial  result,  but 
grave  points  in  national  policy. 

The  only  financial  legislation  necessary  to  carry  L 
out  the  Louisiana  purchase  was  a  provision  that 
$700,000  of  the  duties  on  merchandise  and  ton 
nage,  a  sum  sufficient  to  pay  the  interest  on  the 
new  debt,  be  added  to  the  annual  permanent  ap 
propriation  for  the  sinking  fund,  making  a  sum 
of  $8,000,000  in  all. 

The  new  debt  would,  Gallatin  said,  neither  im 
pede  nor  retard  the  payment  of  the  principal  of 
the  old  debt ;  and  the  fund  would  be  sufficient,  be 
sides  paying  the  interest  on  both,  to  discharge  the 
principal  of  the  old  debt  before  the  year  1818, 
and  of  the  new,  within  one  year  and  a  half  after 
that  year.  In  this  expectation  he  relied  solely  on 
the  maintenance  of  the  revenue  at  the  amount  of 
the  year  1802,  and  in  no  way  depended  on  its 
probable  increase  as  a  result  of  neutrality  in  the 
European  war ;  nor  on  any  augmentation  by  rea- 

1  These  were  the  banks  of  New  York,  Boston,  Philadelphia, 
and  Baltimore.  Seven  presidents  formed  the  committee.  John 
A.  Stevens  of  New  York  was  chairman.  The  sum  advanced  to 
the  government  was  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  dollars  in 
coin. 


204  ALBERT   GALL  AT  IN. 

son  of  increase  of  population  or  wealth,  nor  the 
effect  which  the  opening  of  the  Mississippi  to  free 
navigation  might  be  expected  to  have  on  the  sales 
of  public  lands  and  the  general  resources  of  the 
country. 

In  his  report  of  December  9,  1805,  Mr.  Galla- 
tin  reviewed  the  results  of  his  first  four  years  of 
service,  April  1,  1801,  to  March  31, 1805. 

RECEIPTS. 

Duties  on  tonnage  and  importation  of 

foreign  merchandise $45,174,837.22 

From  all  other  sources 5,492,629.82 

$50,667,467.04 


EXPENDITURES. 

Civil  list  and  miscellaneous    ....  $3,786,094.7^ 
Intercourse  with  foreign  nations     .     .  1,071,437.84 
Military  establishment  and  Indian  de 
partment     4,405,192.26 

Naval  establishment     ......  4,842,635.15 

Interest  on  foreign  debt 16,278,700.95 

Reimbursement  of  debt  from  surplus 

revenue 19,281,446.57 

$49,665,507.56 

The  Louisiana  purchase  and  the  admirable  man 
ner  of  its  financial  arrangement  were  important 
factors  in  Jefferson's  reelection.  Mr.  Gallatin 
was  therefore  sure  of  four  years,  at  least,  for  the 
prosecution  of  his  plan  of  redemption  of  the  pub 
lic  debt.  Estimating  that  with  the  increase  of 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      205 

population  at  the  rate  of  thirty-five  per  cent,  in 
ten  years,  and  the  corresponding  growth  of  the 
revenue,  he  could  count  upon  a  net  annual  sur 
plus  of  $5,500,000,  he  now  proposed  to  convert 
the  several  outstanding  obligations  into  a  six  per 
cent,  stock  amounting,  January  1,  1809,  to  less 
than  forty  millions  of  dollars,  which  the  con 
tinued  annual  appropriation  of  $8,000,000  would, 
besides  paying  the  interest  on  the  Louisiana  debt, 
reimburse  within  a  period  of  less  than  seven  years, 
or  before  the  end  of  the  year  1815.  After  that 
year  no  other  incumbrance  would  remain  on  the 
revenue  than  the  interest  and  reimbursement  of 
the  Louisiana  stock,  the  last  payment  of  which 
in  the  year  1821  would  complete  the  final  extin 
guishment  of  the  public  debt.  The  conversion 
act  was  passed  February  1,  1807,  and  books  were 
opened  on  July  1  following.  On  February  27, 
1807,  Mr.  Gallatin  made  a  special  report  on  the 
state  of  the  debt  from  1801  to  1807,  showing  a 
diminution,  notwithstanding  the  Louisiana  pur 
chase,  of  $14,260,000. 

In  the  summer  of  1807  war  with  England 
seemed  inevitable.  Gallatin  had  the  satisfaction 
to  report  a  full  treasury,  —  the  amount  of  specie 
October  7,  1807,  reaching  over  eight  and  one  half 
millions,  —  and  an  annual  unappropriated  surplus, 
which  could  be  confidently  relied  upon,  of  at  least 
three  millions  of  dollars.  On  this  subject  his  re 
marks  in  the  light  of  subsequent  history  are  of 


200  AIJiKItT   G A  I.LATIN. 

extreme  interest.  While  refraining  from  any  rec 
ommendations  as  to  the  application  of  this  surplus* 
either  to  "measures  of  security  and  defence,"  or  to 
"  internal  improvements  which,  while  increasing 
and  diffusing  the  national  wealth,  will  strengthen 
the  bonds  of  union,"  as  "  subjects  which  do  not 
fall  within  the  province  of  the  Treasury  Depart 
ment,"  he  proceeds  to  consider  the  advantage  of 

;m  :i.(-r.iimulal.ioM  in  1  he  Tn-:i.Mi  ry.  In  this  report 
he  rises  with  easy  flight  far  above  the  purely  finan 
cial  atmosphere  into  the  higher  plane  of  political 
economy. 

"  A  previous  accumulation  of  treasure  in  time  of 
peace  might  in  a  groat  degree  defray  the  extraordinary 
expenses  of  war  arid  diminish  the  necessity  of  either 
loans  or  additional  taxes.  It  would  provide  during  pe 
riods  of  prosperity  for  those  adverse  events  to  which 
every  nation  is  exposed)  instead  of  increasing  the  bur 
thens  of  the  people  at  a  time  when  they  are  least  able 
to  boar  them,  or  of  impairing,  by  anticipations,  the  re 
sources  of  ensuing  generations.  .  .  . 

"  That  the  revenue  of  the  United  States  will  in  sub 
sequent  years  he  considerably  impaired  by  a  war  neither 
can  nor  ought  to  be  concealed.  It  is,  on  the  contrary, 
necessary  in  order  lo  lie  prepared  for  the  crisis,  to  take 
an  early  view  of  iho  subject,  and  to  examine  the  re 
sources  which  should  be  selected  for  supplying  the  do- 
lioionoy  and  defraying  the  extraordinary  expenses.  .  .  . 

"  Whether  taxes  should  be  rumed  to  a  groat  or  amount 
or  loans  1)(5  altogether  relied  on  for  defraying  the  ex 
penses  of  the  war,  is  the  next  subject  of  consideration. 


SECRETARY  OF  THK   TREASURY.  207 

"  Taxes  are  paid  by  the  grout  mass  of  tho  citizens, 
and  immediately  affect  almost  every  individual  of  tho 
coin  in  unity.  Loans  arc  supplied  by  capital  previously 
accumulated  by  a  few  individuals.  In  a  country  wlioro 
tho  resources  of  individuals  arc  not  generally  and  ma 
terially  affected  by  the  war,  it  in  practicable  and  wise  to 
raise  by  taxes  the  greater  part  at  least  of  the  annual 
supplies.  The  credit  of  the  nation  may  also  from  vari 
ous  circumstances  be  at  times  so  far  impaired  as  to  have 
no  resource  but  taxation.  In  both  respects  the  situa 
tion  of  the  United  States  is  totally  dissimilar.  .  .  . 

44  An  addition  to  the  debt  is  doubtless  an  evil,  but  ex 
perience  having  now  shown  with  what  rapid  progress 
the  revenue  of  the  Union  inorcascH  in  time  of  peace, 
with  what  facility  the  debt,  formerly  contracted,  has  in  a 
few  years  been  reduced,  a  hope  may  confidently  be  en 
tertained  that  all  the  evils  of  the  war  will  bo  temporary 
and  easily  repaired,  and  that  the  return  of  peace  will, 
without  any  effort,  afford  ample  resources  for  reimburs 
ing  whatever  may  have  been  borrowed  during  the  war." 

He  then  enumerates  tho  several  branches  of 
revenue  which  might  bo  selected  to  provide  for 

MM-  interest,  of  w:ir  loans  :iiid  !<>  cover  deficiencies. 
1st,  a  considerable  increase  of  the  duties  on  im 
portations,  and  here  he  says, 

"  Without  resorting  to  tho  example  of  other  nations, 
experience  has  proven  that  this  source  of  revenue  is  in 
tho  United  States  the  most  productive,  the  easiest  to 
collect,  and  tho  least  burthensome  to  the  great  muss  of 
the  people.  2d.  Indirect  taxes,  however  ineligible,  will 
doubtless  bo  cheerfully  paid  as  war  taxes,  if  necessary, 


208  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

3d.  Direct  taxes  are  liable  to  a  particular  objection  aris 
ing  from  unavoidable  inequality  produced  by  the  gen 
eral  rule  of  the  Constitution.  Whatever  differences 
may  exist  between  the  relative  wealth  and  consequent 
ability  of  paying  of  the  several  States,  still  the  tax  must 
necessarily  be  raised  in  proportion  to  their  relative  pop 
ulation." 

The  Orders  in  Council  of  November  11,  1807, 
avowedly  adopted  to  compel  all  nations  to  give  up 
their  maritime  trade  or  accept  it  through  Great 
Britain,  reached  Washington  on  December  18, 
1807,  and  were  immediately  replied  to  by  the 
United  States  by  an  embargo  act  on  December 
22.  The  history  of  the  political  effect  of  this 
measure  is  beyond  the  limits  of  this  economic 
study,  and  will  be  touched  upon  in  a  later  chap 
ter,  but  the  result  of  its  application  upon  the 
Treasury  falls  within  this  analysis  of  the  methods 
of  Mr.  Gallatin's  administration. 

On  December  18  Gallatin  wrote  Jefferson  that 
"  in  every  point  of  view,  privations,  sufferings, 
revenue,  effect  on  the  enemy,  politics  at  home, 
etc.,"  he  preferred  "  war  to  a  permanent  em 
bargo  ;  "  nevertheless  he  was  called  upon  to  draft 
the  bill.  The  correctness  of  Mr.  Gallatin's  pre 
vision  was  soon  apparent.  In  his  report  of  De 
cember  10,  1808,  he  reviewed  the  general  effect 
of  the  measure.  "The  embargo  has  brought  into 
and  kept  in  the  United  States  almost  all  the  float 
ing  property  of  the  nation.  And  whilst  the  de- 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  209 

predated  value  of  domestic  product  increases  the 
difficulty  of  raising  a  considerable  revenue  by  in 
ternal  taxes,  at  no  former  time  has  there  been  so 
much  specie,  so  much  redundant  unemployed  cap 
ital  in  the  country."  Again  stating  his  opinion 
that  loans  should  be  principally  relied  on  in  case 
of  war,  he  closed  with  the  following  words :  "  The 
high  price  of  public  stocks  (and  indeed  of  all  spe 
cies  of  stocks),  the  reduction  of  the  public  debt, 
the  unimpaired  credit  of  the  general  government, 
and  the  large  amount  of  existing  bank  stock  in 
the  United  States,  [estimated  by  him  at  forty 
millions  of  dollars,]  leave  no  doubt  of  the  practi 
cability  of  obtaining  the  necessary  loans  on  rea 
sonable  terms." 

The  receipts  into  the  Treasury  during  the 

year  ending  September,  1808,  the  last  of 

Jefferson's  administration,  were  .     .     $17,952,419.90 
The  disbursements  during  the  same  period 

were 12,635,275.46 

Excess  of  receipts $5,317,144.44 

And  the  specie  in  Treasury,  October  1, 

1808 $13,846,717.82 

From  January  1,  1791,  to  January  1,  1808, 
the  debt  had  fallen  from  $75,169,974.21  to  $57,- 
023,192.09 ;  during  the  first  ten  years  it  had  in 
creased  nearly  seven  millions  of  dollars,  in  the  last 
eight  it  had  been  diminished  more  than  twenty 
millions  and  Louisiana  had  been  purchased.  Thus 
14 


210  ALBERT   GALLAT1N. 

closed  the  second  term  of  Gallatin's  service.  Hap 
pen  what  might,  the  credit  of  the  country  could 
not  be  in  a  better  situation  to  meet  the  exigencies 
of  a  war.  A  letter  from  Mr.  Jefferson  to  Mr. 
Gallatin  after  the  close  of  this  administration  and 
Gallatin's  reply  show  the  entire  accord  between 
them  upon  the  one  cardinal  point  of  financial  pol 
icy.  Mr.  Jefferson,  October  11,  1809,  wrote  from 
Monticello,  "  I  consider  the  fortunes  of  our  re 
public  as  depending  in  an  eminent  degree  on  the 
extinction  of  the  public  debt  before  we  engage  in 
any  war;  because,  that  done,  we  shall  have  rev 
enue  enough  to  improve  our  country  in  peace 
and  defend  it  in  war,  without  incurring  either 
new  taxes  or  new  loans."  And  urging  Gallatin 
to  retain  his  post,  he  closed  with  the  striking 
words,  "  I  hope,  then,  you  will  abandon  entirely 
the  idea  you  expressed  to  me,  and  that  you  will 
consider  the  eight  years  to  come  as  essential  to 
your  political  career.  I  should  certainly  consider 
any  earlier  day  of  your  retirement  as  the  most 
inauspicious  day  our  new  government  has  ever 
seen."  To  which  Gallatin  replied  from  Washing 
ton,  on  November  10  :  — 

"The  reduction  of  the  public  debt  was  certainly  the 
principal  object  in  bringing  me  into  office,  and  our  suc 
cess  in  that  respect  has  been  due  both  to  the  joint  and 
continued  efforts  of  the  several  branches  of  government 
and  to  the  prosperous  situation  of  the  country.  I  am 
sensible  that  the  work  cannot  progress  under  adverse  cir- 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      211 

cu instances.  If  the  United  States  shall  be  forced  into  a 
state  of  actual  war,  all  the  resources  of  the  country  must 
be  called  forth  to  make  it  efficient  and  new  loans  will  un 
doubtedly  be  wanted.  But  whilst  peace  is  preserved,  the 
revenue  will,  at  all  events,  be  sufficient  to  pay  the  interest 
and  to  defray  necessary  expenses.  I  do  not  ask  that  in 
the  present  situation  of  our  foreign  relations  the  debt  be 
reduced,  but  only  that  it  shall  not  be  increased  so  long 
as  we  are  not  at  war." 

In  his  eight  years  of  service  under  Jefferson, 
Gallatin  had  not  found  the  Treasury  Department 
a  bed  of  roses.  Under  Madison  there  was  an  un 
due  proportion  of  thorns. 

It  has  been  shown  that  the  entire  reliance  of 
Gallatin  for  the  expenses  of  government  was  on 
customs,  tonnage  dues,  and  land  sales.  The  effect 
of  the  Embargo  Act  was  soon  felt  in  the  falling  off 
of  importations,  and  consequently  in  the  revenue 
from  this  source.  Mr.  Gallatin  felt  the  strain  in 
the  spring  of  1809  and  on  March  18,  soon  after 
Mr.  Madison's  inauguration,  he  gave  notice  to  the 
commissioners  of  the  sinking  fund  of  a  probable 
deficiency.  In  his  annual  report  to  Congress,  De 
cember,  1809,  he  announced  the  expenses  of  gov- 
ernment,  exclusively  of  the  payments  on  account 
of  the  principal  of  the  debt,  to  have  exceeded  the 
actual  receipts  into  the  Treasury  by  a  sum  of  near 
$1,300,000.  For  this  deficiency,  and  the  sum  re 
quired  for  the  sinking  fund,  Gallatin  was  author 
ized  in  May  to  borrow  from  the  bank  of  the  United 


212  ALBERT  GALLATJN. 

States  $3,750,000  at  six  per  cent.,  reimbursable  on 
December  31, 1811.  Of  this  sum  only  $2,750,000 
was  taken,  the  expenses  having  proved  less  than 
Mr.  Gallatin  had  anticipated. 

Madison  called  Congress  together  on  November 
1,  1811.  The  political  tension  was  strong,  and  he 
was  anxious  to  throw  the  responsibility  of  peace 
or  war  upon  Congress.  On  November  22,  1811, 
Mr.  Gallatin  made  his  report  on  the  finances  and 
the  public  debt.  It  was,  as  usual,  explicit  and  in 
no  manner  despondent.  The  actual  receipts  aris 
ing  from  revenue  alone  exceeded  the  current  ex 
penses,  including  the  interest  paid  on  the  debt,  by 
a  sum  of  more  than  five  and  one  half  millions  of 
dollars.  The  public  debt  on  January  1,  1812,  was 
$45,154,463.00.  Since  Gallatin  took  charge  of 
the  department,  the  United  States  had  in  ten  years 
and  nine  months  paid  in  full  the  purchase-money 
of  Louisiana,  and  increased  its  revenue  nearly  two 
millions  of  dollars.  For  eight  years  eight  millions 
of  dollars  had  been  annually  paid  on  account  of 
the  principal  and  interest  of  the  debt.  And  as 
though  intending  to  leave  as  the  legacy  of  his 
service  a  lesson  of  financial  policy,  he  said :  — 

"  The  redemption  of  principal  has  been  effected  with 
out  the  aid  of  any  internal  taxes,  either  direct  or  indirect, 
without  any  addition  during  the  last  seven  years  to  the 
rate  of  duties  on  importations,  which  on  the  contrary  have 
been  impaired  by  the  repeal  of  the  duty  on  salt,  and  not" 
withstanding  the  great  diminution  of  commerce  during 


SECRETARY  OF  THE    TREASURY.  213 

the  last  four  years.  It  therefore  proves  decisively  the 
ability  of  the  United  States  with  their  ordinary  revenue 
to  discharge,  in  ten  years  of  peace,  a  debt  of  forty-two 
millions  of  dollars,  a  fact  which  considerably  lessens  the 
weight  of  the  most  formidable  objection  to  which  that 
revenue,  depending  almost  solely  on  commerce,  appears 
to  be  liable.  In  time  of  peace  it  is  almost  sufficient  to 
defray  the  expenses  of  a  war  ;  in  time  of  war  it  is  hardly 
competent  to  support  the  expenses  of  a  peace  establish 
ment.  Sinking  at  once,  under  adverse  circumstances, 
from  fifteen  to  six  or  eight  millions  of  dollars,  it  is  only 
by  a  persevering  application  of  the  surplus  which  it 
affords  us  in  years  of  prosperity,  to  the  discharge  of  the 
debt,  that  a  total  change  in  the  system  of  taxation  or  a 
perpetual  accumulation  of  debt  can  be  avoided.  But  if 
a  similar  application  of  such  surplus  be  hereafter  strictly 
adhered  to,  forty  millions  of  debt,  contracted  during  five 
or  six  years  of  war,  may  always,  without  any  extraor 
dinary  exertions,  be  reimbursed  in  ten  years  of  peace. 
This  view  of  the  subject  at  the  present  crisis  appears 
necessary  for  the  purpose  of  distinctly  pointing  out 
one  of  the  principal  resources  within  reach  of  the  United 
States.  But  to  be  placed  on  a  solid  foundation,  it  re 
quires  the  aid  of  a  revenue  sufficient  at  least  to  defray 
the  ordinary  expenses  of  government,  and  to  pay  the  in 
terest  on  the  public  debt,  including  that  on  new  loans 
which  may  be  authorized." 

From  this  plain  declaration,  it  was  evident  that 
the  sum  necessary  to  pay  interest  on  new  loans, 
and  provide  for  their  redemption  by  the  operation 
of  the  sinking  fund,  could  not  be  obtained  from 


214  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

the  ordinary  sources  of  revenue,  and  that  resort 
i  must  be  had  to  extraordinary  imposts  or  direct 
taxation.  On  January  10,  1812,  in  response  to 
an  inquiry  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  as 
to  an  increase  of  revenue  in  the  event  of  a  war, 
Gallatin  submitted  a  project  for  war  loans  of  ten 
millions  a  year,  irredeemable  for  ten  years.  He 
pointed  out  that  the  government  had  never  since 
its  organization  obtained  considerable  loans  at  six 
per  cent,  per  annum,  except  from  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States,  and  these,  on  a  capital  of  seven 
millions,  never  amounted  to  seven  millions  in  the 
whole.  As  the  amount  of  prospective  loans  would 
naturally  raise  the  amount  of  interest,  it  seemed 
prudent  not  to  limit  the  rate  of  interest  by  law; 
ineligible  as  it  seemed  to  leave  that  rate  discre 
tionary  with  the  Executive,  it  was  preferable  to 
leaving  the  public  service  unprovided  for.  For 
the  same  reason  the  loans  should  be  made  irre 
deemable  for  a  term  not  less  than  ten  years. 

He   then    repeated   a   former    suggestion,  that 
"treasury   notes,"  bearing  interest,  might  be  is 
sued,   which  would  to  that  extent  diminish  the 
•      amount  to  be  directly  borrowed  and  also  provide 
"^    a  part  of  the  circulating  medium  ;  passing  as  bank 
notes, —  but  their  issue  must  be  strictly  limited  to 
that  amount  at  which  they  would  circulate  with 
out  depreciation.     So  long  as  the  public  credit  is 
preserved    and  a  sufficient  revenue  provided,  he 
entertained  no  doubts   of   the  possibility  of  pro 


SECRETARY  OF  THE   TREASURY.  215 

curing  on  loan  the  sums  necessary  to  defray  the 
extraordinary  expenses  of  a  war.  He  warned 
the  committee,  and  through  it  Congress,  that  "  no 
artificial  provisions,  no  appropriations  or  invest 
ments  of  particular  funds  in  certain  persons,  no 
nominal  sinking  fund,  however  constructed,  will 
ever  reduce  a  public  debt  unless  the  net  annual 
revenue  shall  exceed  the  aggregate  of  the  annual 
expenses,  including  the  interest  of  the  debt.'* 
He  then  submitted  the  following  estimates :  — 

"  The  current  or  peace  expenses  have  been  estimated 
at  nine  millions  of  dollars.  Supposing  the  debt  con 
tracted  during  the  war  not  to  exceed  fifty  millions  and 
its  annual  interest  to  amount  to  three  millions,  the  ag 
gregate  of  the  peace  expenditure  would  be  no  more 
than  twelve  millions.  And  as  the  peace  revenue  of  the 
United  States  may  at  the  existing  rate  of  duties  be  fairly 
estimated  at  fifteen  millions,  there  would  remain  from 
the  first  outset  a  surplus  of  three  millions  applicable  to 
the  redemption  of  the  debt.  So  far,  therefore,  as  can  be 
now  foreseen,  there  is  "the  strongest  reason  to  believe 
that  the  debt  thus  contracted  will  be  discharged  with 
facility  and  as  speedily  as  the  terms  of  the  loans  will 
permit.  Nor  does  any  other  plan  in  that  respect  appear 
necessary  than  to  extend  the  application  of  the  annual 
appropriation  of  eight  millions  (and  which  is  amply 
sufficient  for  that  purpose)  to  the  payment  of  interest 
and  reimbursement  of  the  principal  of  the  new  debt.  .  .  . 
If  the  national  revenue  exceeds  the  national  expenditure, 
a  simple  appropriation  for  the  payment  of  the  principal 
of  the  debt  and  coextensive  with  the  object  is  sufficient 


216  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

and  will  infallibly  extinguish  the  debt.  If  the  expense 
exceeds  the  revenue,  the  appropriation  of  any  specific  sum 
and  the  investment  of  the  interest  extinguished  or  of  any 
other  fund,  will  prove  altogether  nugatory  ;  and  the  na 
tional  debt  will,  notwithstanding  that  apparatus,  be  an 
nually  increased  by  an  amount  equal  to  the  deficit  in  the 
revenue.  .  .  .  What  appears  to  be  of  vital  importance  is 
that  the  crisis  should  at  once  be  met  by  the  adoption  of 
efficient  measures,  which  will  with  certainty  provide 
means  commensurate  with  the  expense,  and,  by  preserv 
ing  unimpaired  instead  of  abusing  that  public  credit  on 
which  the  public  resources  so  eminently  depend,  will  enable 
the  United  States  to  persevere  in  the  contest  until  an  hon 
orable  peace  shall  have  been  obtained." 

On  March  14  Congress  authorized  a  public 
loan  of  eleven  millions  of  dollars,  leaving  it  op 
tional  with  the  banks  who  subscribed  to  take 
stock,  or  to  loan  the  money  on  special  contract. 
The  books  were  opened  May  1  and  2,  and  in  the 
two  days  $6,118,900  were  subscribed  :  14,190,000 
by  banks  and  $1,928,000  by  individuals.  The 
rate  was  six  per  cent.  Mr.  Gallatin  reported  this 
result,  and  proposed  the  issue  of  treasury  notes  for 
such  amount  as  was  desired  within  the  limit  of  the 
loan  to  bear  interest  at  five  and  two  fifths  per  cent. 
a  year,  equal  to  a  cent  and  a  half  per  day  on  a 
hundred  dollars'  note  ;  2d,  to  be  payable  one  year 
after  date  of  issue  ;  3d,  to  be  in  the  meanwhile 
receivable  in  payment  of  all  duties,  taxes,  or  debts 
due  to  the  United  States."  The  first  of  these  in 
genious  qualifications  was  adopted  by  Mr.  Chase 
in  his  issue  of  the  seven-thirties. 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  217 

On  June  18  war  was  declared.  On  the  28th 
Mr.  Gallatin  submitted  his  estimate  of  receipts 
and  expenditures  for  the  year. 

EXPENDITURES  IN  ROUND  NUMBERS. 

Civil  and  miscellaneous $1,560,000 

Military  establishment,  and  Indian  dept.  .  12,800,000 

Naval  establishment 3,940,000 

Public  debt 8,000,000 

$26,300,000 


FUNDS    PROVIDED. 

Balance  in  Treasury,  January  1  ...  $2,000,000 
Receipts  from  duties  and  sales  of  lands 

as  by  estimate  of  November  22, 1811  .  8,200,000 

Loan  authorized  by  law 11,000,000 

Treasury  notes  as  authorized  by  House 

of  Representatives 5,000,000 


$26,200,000 

The  issue  of  treasury  notes  was  a  novel  experi-  i 
ment  in  the  United  States ;  but  they  were  favorably 
received,  and  Mr.  Gallatin  calculated  that  the  full 
amount  authorized  by  law,  $5,000,000,  could  be 
put  in  circulation  during  the  year.  The  result  of 
a  loan  seemed  more  doubtful.  The  old  six  per 
cents  and  deferred  stock  had  already  fallen  two 
or  three  per  cent,  below  par.  Mr.  Gallatin  again 
recommended  the  conversion  of  these  securities 
into  a  new  six  per  cent,  stock,  which  would  facili 
tate  the  new  loan,  and  to  prevent  the  necessity  of 
applying,  the  same  years,  the  large  sums  required 


218 


ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 


in  reimbursement  of  and  purchase  of  the  public 
debt. 

On  December  1  Mr.    Gallatin   made   his   last 
annual  statement. 

Treasury  Report  for  Fiscal  Tear  ending  September  30? 
1812. 


RECEIPTS. 

Customs,  sales  of  lands,  etc 

On  account  of  loan  of  eleven  millions, 
act  14  March,  1812 

Balance  in  Treasury  October  1,  1811 


DISBURSEMENTS. 

Civil  Department,  foreign  intercourse  . 
Army,  militia,  forts,  etc.  $7,770,300.00 


Navy  Department  . 
Indian  Department 


3,107,501.54 
230,975.00 


Interest  on  debt     .     .     $2,498,013.19 
On  account  of  principal      2,938,465.99 

Leaving  in  Treasury  30  Sept.  1812 


$10,934,946.20 


5,847,212.50 

$16,782,158.70 
3,947,818.36 

$20,729,977.06 


$1,823,069.35 

11,108,776.54 

5,436,479.18 

$18,368,325.07 
2,361,652.69 

$20,729,977.76 


The  sums  obtained  or  secured  on  loans  during 
the  year  amounted  to  $13,100,209.00,  and  the 
Secretary  had  the  satisfaction  to  state  "  that  not 
withstanding  the  addition  thus  made  to  the  public 
debt,  and  although  a  considerable  portion  has 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      219 

been  remitted  from  England  and  brought  to 
market  in  America,  the  public  stocks  (which  had 
at  first  experienced  a  slight  depression)  have  been 
for  the  last  three  months,  and  continue  to  be,  at 
par."  His  last  report  to  the  commissioners  of  the 
sinking  fund  of  February  5, 1813,  stated  the  usual 
application  of  18,719,773.00  to  the  principal  and 
interest  of  the  debt. 

In  his  report  of  December  1,  1812,  Mr.  Gal- 
latin  announced  that  a  loan  of  twenty-one  millions 
was  needed  for  the  service  of  1813.  Congress  au 
thorized  a  loan  of  $16,000,000,  having  six  years 
to  run,  and  an  additional  issue  of  $5,000,000  of 
treasury  notes.  Congress  adjourned  on  March  4. 
Their  procrastination  and  the  pressing  demands 
of  the  War  Department  nearly  beggared  the 
Treasury  before  the  loans  could  be  negotiated  and 
covered  into  it. 

On  April  17  Mr.  Gallatin  wrote  to  the  Secre 
taries  of  the  Army  and  of  the  Navy,  and  sent  a 
copy  of  his  letters  to  Mr.  Madison  with  informa 
tion  that  the  loan  had  been  filled,  and  the  prob 
able  receipts  of  the  Treasury  from  ordinary  sources 
for  the  year  ascertained.  These  he  estimated  at 
$9,300,000.  Deducting  the  annual  appropriation 
for  interest  on  the  debt,  the  sum  expended  to 
March  31,  and  the  amount  needed  for  the  civil 
service,  there  remained  for  the  War  and  Navy 
Departments  together  the  sum  of  $18,720,000. 

The  loan  of  $16,000,000  was  obtained  in  the 
following  places  :  — 


220  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

States  east  of  New  York $486,700 

State  of  New  York 5,720,000 

Philadelphia,  Pa 6,858,400 

Baltimore  and  District  of  Columbia       .     .  2,393,300 

State  of  Virginia 187,000 

Charleston,  S.  C 354,000 


$16,000,00$ 

The  history  of  this  subscription  is  not  without 
interest.  The  extremely  small  subscriptions  in 
New  England  and  in  the  Southern  States  can 
hardly  be  explained  on  any  other  theory  than  that 
of  a  belief  in  the  collapse  of  the  finances  of  the 
United  States  and  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  for 
which  the  New  England  States  had  certainly  been 
prepared  by  their  governing  minds.1 

Books  were  opened  on  March  12  and  13, 1813, 
at  Portsmouth,  Salem,  Boston,  Providence,  New 
York,  Albany,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Wash 
ington,  Richmond,  and  Charleston.  In  the  two 
days  the  subscriptions  only  reached  the  sum  of 
$3,956,400.  They  were  again  opened  on  the  25th 
of  March  at  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore, 
and  Washington.  The  New  England  and  South 
ern  States  seem  to  have  been  disregarded  because 
of  their  indifference  in  the  first  instance.  The 
books  remained  open  from  March  25  to  31,  dur- 

1  At  Portland,  $120,000;  Salem,  $183,600;  Boston,  $75,300; 
"Providence,  $67,800 ;  Richmond,  $49,000;  Norfolk,  $103,000: 
Charleston,  $354,000. 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      221 

ing  which  time  there  were  received  $1,881,800,  a 
total  of  $5,838,200. 

The  pressure  fell  on  the  Middle  States.  In 
these,  fortunately  for  the  government,  there  were 
three  great  capitalists  whose  faith  in  the  future 
prosperity  of  the  United  States  was  unimpaired. 
All  were  foreigners  :  David  Parish  and  Stephen  Gi- 
rard  in  Philadelphia  and  John  Jacob  Astor  in  New 
York.  These  now  came  forward,  no  doubt  at  the 
instance  of  Mr.  Gallatin,  who  was  a  personal  friend 
of  each.  Parish  and  Girard  offered  on  April  5 
to  take  eight  millions  of  the  loan  at  the  rate  of 
eighty-eight  dollars  for  a  certificate  of  one  hundred 
dollars  bearing  interest  at  six  per  cent.,  redeem 
able  before  December  31, 1825,  they  to  receive  one 
quarter  of  one  per  cent,  commission  on  the  amount 
accepted,  and  in  case  of  a  further  loan  for  the 
service  of  the  year  1813,  to  be  placed  on  an  equal 
footing  with  its  takers.  John  Jacob  Astor  on  the 
same  day  and  at  the  same  place  proposed  to  take 
for  himself  and  his  friends  the  sum  of  two  million 
and  fifty-six  thousand  dollars  of  the  loan  on  the 
same  conditions.  These  offers  were  accepted  and 
the  loan  was  complete.  An  offer  on  behalf  of  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania  to  take  one  million  of  the 
loan  was  received  too  late.  Altogether  the  offers 
amounted  to  about  eighteen  millions,  or  two  mil 
lions  more  than  the  sum  demanded.  Mr.  Gallatin, 
clinging  to  his  old  plan,  endeavored  to  negotiate 
this  loan  at  par,  by  offering  a  premium  of  a  thir- 


222  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

teen  years'  annuity  of  one  per  cent.,  but  found  it 
impracticable.  Indeed,  the  system  of  annuity, 
general  in  England,  has  never  found  favor  as- an 
investment  in  the  United  States. 

This  was  Mr.  Gallatin's  last  financial  transac 
tion.  A  few  weeks  later,  at  his  own  request,  he 
severed  his  actual  connection  with  the  Treasury 
Department  and  was  on  his  way  to  St.  Petersburg 
to  secure  the  proffered  mediation  of  the  Emperor 
of  Russia  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain. 

Thus  ended  Mr.  Gallatin's  administration  of 
the  national  finances.  The  hour  for  saving  had 
passed.  The  imperious  necessities  of  war  take 
no  heed  of  economic  principles.  The  work  which 
the  Secretary  had  done  became  as  the  rope  of 
sand.  It  is  not  surprising  that  Gallatin  wearied 
of  his  post ;  that  he  watched  with  vain  regret  and 
unavailing  sighs  the  unavoidable  increase  of  the 
national  debt,  and  that  he  sought  relief  in  other 
services  where  success  was  not  so  evanescent  as  in 
the  Treasury  Department.  Before  the  close  of 
Madison's  administration,  February  12,  1816,  the 
public  debt  had  run  up  to  over  one  hundred  and 
twenty-three  millions,1  and  a  sum  equal  to  the  en 
tire  amount  of  Mr.  Gallatin's  savings  in  two  terms 
had  been  expended  in  one.  But  his  work  had  not 
been  in  vain.  The  war  was  the  crucial  test  of  the 
soundness  of  his  financial  policy.  The  maxims 

1  Report  of  Secretary  Dallas,  September  20,  1816. 


SECRETARY  OF  THE   TREASURY.  223 

which  he  announced,  that  debt  can  only  be  re 
duced  by  a  surplus  of  revenue  over  expenditure, 
and  the  accompaniment  of  every  loan  by  an  appro 
priation  for  its  extinguishment,  became  the  fun 
damental  principle  of  American  finance.  Mr.  Gal- 
latin  was  uniformly  supported  in  it  by  Congress 
and  public  opinion.  It  was  faithfully  adhered  to 
by  his  distinguished  successors,  Dallas  and  Craw 
ford,  and  the  impulse  thus  given  continued  through 
later  administrations,  until,  in  1837,  twenty  years 
after  the  peace,  the  entire  debt  had  been  extin 
guished.  All  this  without  any  other  variation 
from  Mr.  Gallatin's  original  plan  than  an  increase 
of  the  annual  appropriation,  to  the  sinking  fund 4^ 
for  its  reimbursement,  from  eight  to  ten  millions.1 
The  only  charge  which  has  ever  been  made 
against  Gallatin's  administration  was,  that  he  re 
duced  the  debt  at  the  expense  of  the  defences  and 
security  of  the  country ;  but,  to  quote  the  words 
of  one  of  his  biographers :  2  "  Mr.  Gallatin  had  the 
sagacity  to  know  that  it  [the  redemption  of  the 
debt]  would  make  but  little  difference  in  the  degree 
of  preparation  of  national  defence  and  means  of 
contest,  for  which  it  is  impossible  ever  to  obtain 
a  considerable  appropriation  before  the  near  ap 
proach  of  the  danger  that  may  render  them  neces 
sary.  He  knew  that  the  money  thus  well  and 
wisely  devoted  to  the  payment  of  the  debt  was 
only  rescued  from  a  thousand  purposes  of  extrav- 

1  Act  of  March  3,  1817.  *  Democratic  Review,  xii.  641 


224  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

agance  and  mal-application  to  which  all  our  legis 
lative  bodies  are  so  prone  whenever  they  have 
control  of  surplus  funds."  In  our  own  day  the 
irresistible  temptations  of  a  full  treasury  need  no 
labored  demonstration.  Friend  and  foe  drop  polit 
ical  differences  over  the  abundant  fleshpot.  The 
very  thought  of  catering  to  such  appetites  dis 
gusted  Gallatin.  To  Jefferson  he  frankly  said,  in 
1809,  that  while  he  did  not  pretend  to  step  out  of 
his  own  sphere  and  to  control  the  internal  man 
agement  of  other  departments,  yet  he  could  not 
u  consent  to  act  the  part  of  a  mere  financier,  to 
become  a  contriver  of  taxes,  a  dealer  of  loans,  a 
seeker  of  resources  for  the  purpose  of  supporting 
useless  baubles,  of  increasing  the  number  of  idle 
and  dissipated  members  of  the  community,  of  fat 
tening  contractors,  pursers,  and  agents,  and  of  in 
troducing  in  all  its  ramifications  that  system  of 
patronage,  corruption,  and  rottenness  which  you 
justly  execrate." 

REVENUE. 

&  Mat  Jest  moi  was  the  autocratic  maxim  of 
Louis  Quatorze.  An  adherence  to  it  cost  the 
Bourbons  their  throne.  Burke  was  more  philo 
sophical  when  he  said,  "  The  revenue  of  the  state 
is  the  state."  Its  imposition,  its  collection,  and 
its  application  involve  all  the  principles  and  all 
the  powers  of  government,  constitutional  or  ex 
traordinary.  It  is  the  sole  foundation  of  public 


SECRETARY  OF  THE   TREASURY. 


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226  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

credit,  the  sole  support  of  the  body  politic,  its  life- 
blood  in  peace,  its  nerve  in  war.  The  "  purse  and 
the  sword  "  are  respectively  the  resource  and  de 
fence  of  government  and  peoples,  and  they  are 
independent  powers.  With  the  discovery  of  the 
sources  of  revenue,  and  the  establishment  of  its 
jv  currents,  Mr.  Gallatin,  in  the  first  eight  years  of 
his  administration  of  the  Treasury,  had  nothing  to 
do.  He  had  only  to  maintain  those  systems  which 
Hamilton  had  devised,  and  which,  wisely  adapted 
to  the  growth  of  the  country,  proved  amply  ade 
quate  to  the  ordinary  expenditures  of  the  govern 
ment  and  to  the  gradual  extinguishment  of  the 
debt.  The  entire  revenue  included  three  distinct 
branches :  imposts  on  importations  and  tonnage, 
internal  revenue,  sales  of  public  lands.  The  du 
ties  on  imports  of  foreign  merchandise  were  alone 
sufficient  to  meet  the  current  expenses  of  the  va 
rious  departments  of  administration  on  a  peace 
establishment,  and,  increasing  with  the  growth  of 
the  country,  would  prove  ample  in  future.  The 
gross  amount  of  imports  in  the  four  years  of  Ad 
ams's  administration,  1796-1800,  was  about  three 
hundred  and  fourteen  millions  of  dollars,  and  the 
customs  yielded  about  thirty  millions. 

Mr.  Gallatin's  first  annual  report,  submitted  to 
the  House  of  Representatives  in  December,  1801, 
exhibited  his  financial  scheme.  He  recapitulated 
the  various  sources  of  permanent  revenue.  They 
were  those  of  Hamilton's  original  tariff. 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  227 

The  revenues  for  the  year  ended  September  30, 
1801,  were  the  basis  of  the  estimates  for  future 
years.  These  were 

Duties  on  imports  and  tonnage     .     $10,126,213.92 

Internal  revenue 854,000.00 

Land  sales 400,000.00 

$11,380,213.92 

But  the  close  of  the  war  in  Europe  sensibly 
diminished  the  enormous  carrying  trade  which  fell 
to  the  United  States  as  neutrals,  and,  as  a  con 
sequence,  the  revenue  from  that  source ;  large 
quantities  of  goods  were  brought  into  the  United 
States  and  reexported  to  foreign  ports  under  a 
system  of  debenture.  The  revenue  on  what  Mr. 
Gallatin  calls  "  this  accidental  commerce "  was 
11,200,000.  He  therefore  estimated  the  perma 
nent  revenues  at 

Customs  duties $9,500,000 

Land  sales 400,000 

Postage 50,000 

Internal  revenue 650,000 


$10,600,000 

Or,  without  the  internal  revenue,  say  ten  millions 
of  permanent  revenue,  as  a  basis  for  the  permanent 
expenditures. 

To  bring  the  expenditures  within  this  sum,  how 
ever,  a  reduction  in  the  army  and  navy%establish' 
ments  was  necessary.  This  Gallatin  soon  found 


228  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

to  be  too  radical  a  measure  for  success,  either  in 
the  cabinet  or  Congress,  however  well  it  may  have 
accorded  with  Jefferson's  Utopian  views.  In  the 
budget  of  1802  the  internal  revenue,  1650,000, 
was,  therefore,  a  necessary  item.  The  expendi 
tures  proposed  were 

Annual  appropriation  for  interest  and 

principal  of  debt $7,100,000 

Civil  list $780,000 

Foreign  intercourse  .  .  200,000 
Military  and  Indian  Dept.  1,420,000 
Naval 1,100,000 

$3,500,000         3,500,000 


$10,600,000 

In  this  budget  the  estimate  for  the  military  es 
tablishment  was  an  increase  over  that  of  Wolcott 
for  1801,  which  was  $1,120,000.  But  the  Repub 
licans  in  the  House  were  not  content  with  this 
arrangement.  The  internal  revenues  were  utterly 
distasteful  tc  them.  They  had  been  laid  against 
their  protest  and  collected  under  military  menace. 
They  were  of  those  Federal  measures  of  which 
they  would  have  none.  John  Randolph,  chairman 
of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  reported, 
March  2,  1802,  against  the  entire  system  of  inter 
nal  duties,  in  the  old  words  of  the  Pennsylvania 
radicals,  as  vexatious,  oppressive,  and  peculiarly 
obnoxiou^  ;  as  of  the  nature  of  an  excise  which  is 
hostile  to  the  genius  of  a  free  people,  and  finally 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      229 

because  of  their  tendency  to  multiply  offices  and 
increase  the  patronage  of  the  Executive.  The 
repeal  was  imperative  upon  the  Republican  party. 
On  April  6,  1802,  the  act  was  repealed  and  the 
surplus  of  the  budget  stripped  from  it,  without 
Mr.  Gallatin's  consent,  certainly',  but  also  without 
protest  from  him. 

The  prosperity  of  the  country  continued.  The 
impost  duties  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  September 
30, 1802,  rose  to  $12,280,000,  the  sales  of  the  pub 
lic  lands  to  $326,000,  and  the  postage  to  150,500,  a 
total  of  $12,656,500,  and  left  in  the  treasury,  Sep 
tember  30,  1802,  the  sum  of  $4,539,675.57.  This 
large  increase  in  the  treasury  did  not  in  the  least 
change  Mr.  Gallatin's  general  plan,  and  his  budget 
for  1803  was  based  on  his  original  scale  of  a  per 
manent  revenue  of  $10,000,000,  to  correspond  with 
which  the  estimates  of  the  preceding  year  were 
reduced.  The  fiscal  year  closed  September  30, 
1803,  with  a  balance  in  the  treasury  of  $5,860,000. 
This  situation  of  the  finances  was  fortunate  in  view 
of  secret  negotiations  which  the  President  and 
Congress  were  initiating  for  the  purchase  of  Lou 
isiana  from  France. 

The  Secretaries  of  War  and  of  the  Navy  had 
promised  to  reduce  their  expenditures  to  a  figure 
approximate  to  Mr.  Gallatin's  estimates  ;  but  the 
breaking  out  of  hostilities  with  Tripoli  prevented 
the  proposed  economy,  and  Mr.  Gallatin  was 
•called  upon  to  provide  for  an  increased  expendi 


230  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

ture  with  one  certain  source  of  revenue  definitively 
closed.  He  therefore  proposed  an  additional  tax 

N^  of  two  and  one  half  per  cent,  on  all  importations 
which  paid  an  ad  valorem  duty.  This  additional 
impost,  laid  by  act  of  March  25,  1804,  called  the 
Mediterranean  Fund,  remained  in  force  long  after 
the  war  closed  and  held  its  place  on  the  books  of 
the  Treasury  under  that  name. 

\J  The  bulk  of  the  cost  of  Louisiana  was  met  by 

an  issue  of  bonds ;  but  Mr.  Gallatin,  true  to  his 
principle,  applied  the  moneys  in  the  treasury  as 
far  as  they  would  go.  The  budget  for  1805  was 
on  a  different  scale.  The  increase  in  the  debt  de 
manded  a  proportionate  increase  in  the  revenue  to 
meet  the  additional  sum  required  for  interest  and 
gradual  annual  reimbursement.  The  Mediterra 
nean  Fund  was  sufficient  to  meet  the  increased 
amounts  required  for  the  navy.  In  this  manner 
he  held  up  the  Navy  Department  to  a  strict  ac 
countability  and  made  it  responsible  to  Congress 
and  not  to  the  cabinet  for  its  administration,  and 
he  thus,  from  his  own  point  of  view,  relieved  the 
Treasury  Department  from  any  responsibility  for 
extraordinary  expenditure. 

Mr.  Gallatin  closed  his  four  years  of  administra 
tion  with  flying  colors.  The  successful  manage 
ment  of  the  finances  was  an  important  factor  in 
the  election  of  1804,  which  returned  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  to  the  presidential  chair  and  insured  to  the 
country  the  inestimable  advantages  of  Mr.  Galla- 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  231 

tin's  practical  mind.  Order  reigned  in  his  de 
partment  at  least,  and  order  subordinate  to  the 
strictest  requirements  of  law.  In  the  four  years, 
1801-1804,  Jefferson's  first  term,  the  imports  ag 
gregated  $337,363,510  and  the  customs  yielded 
$45,000,000. 

The  annual  report,  made  December  9,  1805,  an 
nounced  an  increasing  revenue,  amounting  in  all 
to  thirteen  and  one  half  millions  of  dollars,  chiefly 
from  customs.  Still  Mr.  Gallatin  made  but  small 
addition  to  his  estimates  for  the  coming  year. 
The  permanent  revenue  he  raised  to  twelve  and 
one  half  millions  and  increased  the  appropriation 
for  the  payment  of  the  debt  and  interest  to  eight 
millions.  Nothing  occurred  during  the  next  year 
to  check  the  growth  of  the  country  ;  the  revenue 
continued  on  a  rising  scale,  and  reached  close 
upon  fifteen  millions  of  dollars. 

So  far  Mr.  Gallatin  had  met  but  inconsiderable 
obstacles  in  his  course,  and  these  he  used  to  his  ad 
vantage  to  impress  economy  upon  the  Army  and 
Navy  Departments,  and  enforce  his  principle  of 
minute  appropriations  for  their  government.  All 
that  he  had  already  accomplished  in  the  establish 
ment  of  a  sound  financial  system  and  the  support 
of  the  credit  of  the  United  States  was  but  the 
basis  of  a  broader  structure  of  national  economy. 
His  extensive  scheme  of  internal  improvements 
was  hardly  matured  when  the  thunder  broke  in 
the  clear  sky.  The  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  the 


232  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

large  carrying  trade  which  had  passed  under  the 
American  flag,  and  the  rapid  prosperity  of  the 
financial  and  industrial  condition  of  the  country 
aroused  the  jealousy  of  Great  Britain,  and  deter 
mined  her  to  check  the  further  progress  of  the 
United  States  by  war,  if  need  be.  The  capture 
of  the  American  frigate  Chesapeake  by  the  man- 
of-war  Leopard,  June  22,  1807,  was  only  the  first 
in  a  series  of  outrages  which  rendered  the  final 
collision,  though  long  delayed,  inevitable.  Mr. 
Gallatin  at  once  recognized  that  the  Treasury 
could  no  longer  be  conducted  on  a  peace  basis. 
"  Money,"  he  wrote  to  Joseph  H.  Nicholson,  "  we 
will  want  to  carry  on  the  war ;  our  revenue  will 
be  cut  up  ;  new  and  internal  taxes  will  be  slow 
and  not  sufficiently  productive ;  we  must  neces 
sarily  borrow.  This  is  not  pleasing  to  me,  but  it 
must  be  done."  Congress  was  called  together  for 
October  26,  1807,  and  on  November  5,  Mr.  Gal 
latin  sent  in  his  annual  report.  There  was  still 
hope  that  Great  Britain  would  make  amends  for 
the  outrage,  and  Congress  was  certainly  peaceably 
disposed.  In  the  condition  of  the  Treasury  there 
was  no  reason  as  yet  for  recommending  extraordi 
nary  measures.  The  revenues  for  the  year  passed 
the  sum  of  seventeen  millions  ;  the  balance  in  the 
Treasury  reached  eight  and  one  half  millions  ; 
the  surplus  on  a  peace  footing  was  twelve  mil 
lions.  Mr.  Gallatin  recommended  that  the  duties 
V-  should  be  doubled  in  case  war  were  threatened. 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      233 

He  said,  "should  the  revenue  fall  below  seven 
millions  of  dollars,  not  only  the  duty  on  salt  and 
the  Mediterranean  duties  could  be  immediately 
revived,  but  the  duties  on  importation  generally  N 
be  considerably  increased,  perhaps  doubled,  with 
less  inconvenience  than  would  arise  from  any  other 
mode  of  taxation."  Experience  had  proven  that 
this  source  of  revenue  is  in  the  United  States  "  the 
most  productive,  the  easiest  to  collect,  and  least 
burdensome  to  the  great  mass  of  the  people."  But 
still  the  war-cloud  did  not  break.  Mr.  Canning 
contented  himself  with  war  in  disguise,  and  by 
his  Order  in  Council  of  November  11,  1807,  shut 
the  ports  of  Europe  to  American  trade,  and  wiped 
away  the  advantages  of  the  United  States  as  a 
neutral  power.  The  United  States  answered  with 
the  act  of  embargo  on  December  22,  1807,  com 
pleting,  as  far  as  it  was  possible  for  legislation  to 
effect  it,  the  blockade  of  the  Treasury  Department 
as  regarded  revenues  from  foreign  imports.  The 
immediate  effect,  however,  of  these  acts  in  Great 
Britain  and  America  was  an  enormous  temporary 
increase  of  importations  in  the  interim  from  the 
time  of  the  passage  of  the  act  until  the  date  when 
it  took  effect.  To  aid  merchants  in  this  peculiar 
condition  of  affairs  an  act  was  passed  by  Congress, 
on  March  10,  1808,  extending  the  terms  of  credit 
on  revenue  bonds. 

Mr.   Gallatin's  report  of   December  16,   1808, 
closed  the  record  of  his  eight  years  of  management 


234  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

of  the  Department.  In  the  second  term  of  Jeffer 
son's  administration,  1805-1808,  the  gross  amount 
of  imports  had  risen  to  $443,990,000,  and  the  cus 
toms  collected  to  nearly  $60,000,000.  In  the 
entire  eight  years,  1800-1808,  the  gross  amount 
of  importations  was  $7,81,000,000,  and  the  cus 
toms  yielded  $105,000,000.  The  entire  expenses 
of  the  government  in  the  same  period,  including 
$65,000,000  of  debt,  had  been  liquidated  from 
customs  alone. 

The  specie  in  the  -Treasury  on  September  20, 
1808,  reached  nearly  $14,000,000.  Mr.  Jefferson 
knew  of  the  amount  in  the  treasury  when  he 
wrote  his  last  message,  November  8,  1808,  and  he 
could  not  have  been  ignorant  of  Mr.  Gallatin's 
warning  of  the  previous  year  that  a  continuance  of 
the  embargo  restriction  would  reduce  the  revenue 
below  the  point  of  annual  expenditures  and  re 
quire  an  additional  impost ;  yet  he  had  the  igno 
rance  or  the  presumption  to  say  in  his  message, 
"  Shall  it  (the  surplus  revenue)  lie  unproductive 
in  the  public  vaults  ?  Shall  the  revenue  be  re 
duced  ?  or  shall  it  not  rather  be  appropriated  to 
the  improvement  of  roads,  canals,  rivers,  education, 
and  other  great  foundations  of  prosperity  and  un 
ion  under  the  powers  which  Congress  may  already 
possess  or  such  amendments  of  the  Constitution 
as  may  be  approved  by  the  States  ?  While  un 
certain  of  the  course  of  things,  the  time  may  be 
advantageously  employed  in  obtaining  the  powers 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  235 

necessary  for  a  system  of  improvement,  should  it 
be  thought  best."  In  these  words  Jefferson  sur 
rendered  the  vital  principle  of  the  Republican 
party.  In  his  satisfaction  at  the  only  triumph  of 
his  administration,  the  management  of  the  finances 
and  the  purchase  of  a  province  without  a  ripple 
on  the  even  surface  of  national  finance,  he  gave 
up  the  very  basis  of  the  Republican  theory,  the 
reduction  of  the  government  to  its  possible  mini 
mum,  and  actually  proposed  a  system  of  adminis 
tration  coextensive  with  the  national  domain,  an 
increase  of  the  functions  of  government,  and  con 
sequently  of  executive  power. 

The  annual  report  of  the  Treasury,  presented 
December  16,  1808,  showed  no  diminution  of  re 
sources.  The  total  receipts  for  the  fiscal  year 
were  nearly  eighteen  millions.  The  total  receipts 
for 

Customs  reached        ......     $26,126,648 

On  which  debentures  were  allowed 

on  exportations 10,059,457 

Actual  receipts  from  customs       .     .     $16,067,191 
But   this  source  of   revenue  was  now  definitively 
closed  by  the  embargo,  while  the  expenditures  of   \ 
the  government  were  increased.     Mr.  Gallatin  met 
the  situation  frankly  and  notified  Congress  of  the 
resources  of  the  Treasury. 

RESOURCES    FOR    1809. 

Cash  in  treasury $13,846,717.52 

Back  customs,  net 2,154,000.00 

Total  resources $16,000,717.52 


236  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

The  receipts  from  importations  and  land  sales 
would  be  offset  by  deductions  for  bad  debts  and 
extensions  of  credit  to  importers.  The  expendi 
tures  were  set  at  113,000,000,  which  would  leave 
in  the  Treasury  for  extraordinary  expenditure 
$3,000,717.  The  disbursements  had  been  far  be 
yond  the  estimates ;  those  for  the  military  and 
naval  establishments  reaching  together  six  mil 
lions. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Mr.  Gallatin 
saw  this  depletion  of  the  treasury,  this  rapid  dis 
sipation  of  the  specie,  —  always  desirable  and  never 
more  so  than  in  periods  of  trouble,  —  without  dis 
appointment  and  regret.  His  report  to  Congress 
was  as  outspoken  politically  as  it  was  financially, 
and  from  a  foreign-born  citizen  to  an  American 
Congress  must  have  carried  its  sting.  "  Either 
America,"  he  wrote,  "  must  accept  the  position  of 
commerce  allotted  to  her  by  the  British  edicts, 
and  abandon  all  that  is  forbidden,  —  and  it  is  not 
material  whether  this  is  done  by  legal  provisions 
limiting  the  commerce  of  the  United  States  to 
the  permitted  places,  —  or  by  acquiescing  in  the 
capture  of  vessels  stepping  beyond  the  prescribed 
bounds.  Or  the  nation  must  oppose  force  to  the 
execution  of  the  orders  of  England ;  and  this,  how 
ever  done,  and  by  whatever  name  called,  will  be 
war."  He  recalled  to  them  his  advice  of  the  pre 
ceding  years  in  a  vein  of  tempered  bitterness: 
"  Had  the  duties  been  doubled  on  January  1, 1808, 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  237 

as  was  then  suggested,  in  case  of  war  the  receipts . 
into  the  treasury  during  that  and  the  ensuing  year 
would  have  been  increased  nine  or  ten  millions  of 
dollars."  He  then  proposed  to  continue  the  Med 
iterranean  Fund  and  to  double  all  existing  duties  , 
on  importations  after  January  1,  1809.  He  in-  NT 
formed  them  that  no  internal  taxes,  either  direct 
or  indirect,  were  contemplated  by  him  even  in  the 
case  of  hostilities  against  the  two  belligerent  pow 
ers  ;  France  having  responded  to  the  Orders  in 
Council  by  Napoleon's  Milan  decree,  December  17, 
1807,  which  was  quite  as  offensive  to  the  United 
States  as  that  of  Canning.  With  true  statesman 
ship  Mr.  Gallatin  nerved  the  country  to  extraor 
dinary  exertion  by  reminding  it  that  the  geo 
graphical  situation  of  the  United  States  and  their 
history  since  the  Revolution  removed  every  appre 
hension  of  frequent  wars. 

During  the  year  1809  the  country  drifted  along 
apparently  without  rudder  or  compass,  helmsman 
or  course,  and  the  treasury  locker  was  being  rap 
idly  reduced  to  remainder  biscuit.  Mr.  Madison 
was  inaugurated  in  March.  In  his  first  message* 
May  23,  1809,  he  exposed  the  financial  situation 
with  an  indecision  which  was  as  marked  a  trait  of 
his  character  as  optimism  was  of  that  of  Jefferson. 
In  his  message  of  November  29,  1809,  he  said 
"the  sums  which  had  been  previously  accumulated 
in  the  treasury,  together  with  the  receipts  during 
the  year  ending  on  September  30  last,  and  amount- 


238  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

ing  to  more  than  nine  millions  of  dollars,  have 
enabled  us  to  fulfil  all  our  engagements  and  defray 
the  current  expenses  of  government  without  re 
curring  to  any  loan ;  but  the  insecurity  of  our 
commerce  and  the  consequent  demands  of  the 
public  revenue  will  probably  produce  a  deficiency 
in  the  receipts  of  the  ensuing  year."  Beyond  this 
Madison  did  not  venture ;  Gallatin  was  left  alone. 

The  Treasury  report  of  December  8, 1809,  an 
nounced  the  beginning  of  short  rations.  The 
expenses  of  government,  exclusively  of  the  pay 
ments  on  account  of  the  principal  of  the  debt,  had 
exceeded  the  actual  receipts  into  the  Treasury  by 
a  sum  of  near  $1,300,000.  If  the  military  and 
naval  establishments  were  to  be  continued  at  the 
figures  of  1809,  when  six  millions  were  expended, 
there  would  result  a  deficiency  of  $3,000,000,  and 
a  loan  of  $4,000,000  would  be  necessary.  Other 
wise  the  Mediterranean  Fund  would  suffice.  The 
y  cash  in  the  treasury  had  fallen  from  nearly  four 
teen  millions  on  June  2,  1809,  to  less  than  six 
millions  on  September  3,  following.  In  this  report 
Gallatin  expressed  his  opinion,  that  the  system  of 
restriction  established  by  the  embargo  and  partly 
relaxed  must  be  entirely  reinstated  or  wholly 
abandoned.  On  May  1,  1810,  an  act  of  strict  pro 
hibition  of  importations  from  Great  Britain  and 
her  dependencies  was  passed. 

While  from  the  incompetency  of  the  adminis 
tration  the  country  was  fast  approaching  the  real 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  239 

crisis  of  open  war,  the  Republicans  in  Congress 
were  deliberately  destroying  and  undermining  the 
basis  of  national  credit,  by  which  alone  it  could  be 
carried  on.  In  February  the  United  States  Bank, 
by  which,  and  its  branches,  the  customs  were 
collected  throughout  the  country,  was  destroyed  v. 
by  the  refusal  of  Congress  to  renew  its  charter.  i 
Mr.  Gallatin  in  his  combinations  never  contem 
plated  such  a  contingency  as  the  total  destruction 
of  the  fiscal  agency  on  which  the  government  had 
relied  for  twenty  years.  Unwilling  to  struggle 
longer  against  the  mean  personalities  and  factious 
opposition  of  his  own  party  in  Congress,  he  ten 
dered  his  resignation  to  Mr.  Madison.  But  the 
Republican  party  was  a  party  of  opposition,  not  of 
government.  With  the  exception  of  Mr.  Gallatin, 
no  competent  administrative  head  had  as  yet  ap 
peared.  There  was  no  one  in  the  party  or  out  of 
it  to  take  his  place.  Mr.  Madison  knew  it.  Mr. 
Gallatin  felt  it,  and  remained.  Congress  met  in 
November.  On  the  25th  Mr.  Gallatin  sent  in  his 
annual  report ;  the  receipts  reached  thirteen  and 
a  half  million  dollars. 

The  Budget  for  1812  left  a  deficiency  to  be  pro 
vided  for  of  $1,200,000.  This  was  a  small  matter. 
The  revenue  Mr.  Gallatin  proposed  to  increase,  on 
the  plan  before  recommended,  by  additions  of  fifty 
per  cent  to  the  imposts  on  foreign  commerce.  This 
he  preferred  to  any  internal  tax. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  the  country,  chafed  be- 


240  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

yond  endurance  by  the  indignities  put  upon  it  and 
the  sufferings  it  encountered  without  compensa 
tion  to  its  pride,  was  eager  for  war.  Congress  was 
no  way  loath  to  try  the  dangerous  path  out  of  its 
labyrinth  of  blunders.  The  near  contingency  im 
posed  the  necessity  of  an  immediate  examination 
of  the  sources  of  revenue.  In  January,  1812,  Mr. 
Gallatin  was  requested  by  the  chairman  of  the 
Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  to  give  his  opinion 
as  to  the  probable  amount  of  receipts  from  duties 
on  tonnage  and  merchandise  in  the  event  of  war. 
This,  in  view  of  the  vigorous  restrictions  laid  by 
France  under  her  Continental  system  of  exclusion, 
Mr.  Gallatin  estimated  under  existing  rules  as  not 
to  exceed  12,500,000.  He  then  stated,  without 
hesitation,  that  it  was  practicable  and  advisable  to 
double  the  rate  of  duties,  and  to  renew  the  old 
duty  on  salt.  The  sum  acquired,  with  this  ad 
dition,  he  anticipated,  would  amount  to  $5,400,000. 
On  the  basis  of  annual  loans  of  ten  millions  of 
dollars  during  the  continuance  of  the  war  (the 
sum  assumed  by  the  committee),  the  deficiency 
for  1814  would  amount,  by  Mr.  Gallatin's  esti 
mate,  to  §4,200,000.  To  produce  a  net  revenue 
equal  to  this  deficiency  he  stated  that  the  gross 
sum  of  taxes  to  be  laid  must  be  five  millions  of 
dollars.  He  then  reverted  to  his  report  of  Decem 
ber  10, 1808,  in  which  he  had  stated  that  "  no  inter 
nal  taxes,  either  direct  or  indirect,  were  contem 
plated,  even  in  the  case  of  hostilities  carried  on 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  241 

against  the  two  great  belligerent  powers."  The 
balance  in  the  treasury  was  then  nearly  fourteen 
millions  of  dollars,  but  in  view  of  the  daily  decrease 
of  the  revenue  he  had  recommended  "  that  all  the 
existing  duties  be  doubled  on  importations  sub 
sequent  to  the  first  day  of  January,  1809."  As 
the  revenues  of  1809,  1810,  and  1811  had  yielded 
$26,000,000,  the  sum  on  hand,  with  the  increase 
thus  recommended,  would  have  reached  $ 20,000,- 
000,  a  sum  greater  than  the  net  amount  of  the 
proposed  internal  taxes  in  four  years.  At  that 
time  no  symptoms  had  appeared  from  which  the 
absolute  dissolution  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  without  any  substitute  could  have  been  an 
ticipated.  If  its  charters  had  been  renewed,  on 
the  conditions  suggested  by  Mr.  Gallatin,  the  ne 
cessity  for  internal  taxes  would  have  been  avoided. 
The  resources  of  the  country,  properly  applied, 
however,  were  amply  sufficient  to  meet  the  emer 
gency  ;  but  Mr.  Gallatin  distinctly  threw  upon 
Congress,  and  by  implication  upon  the  Republican 
majority,  the  responsibility  for  the  state  of  the 
treasury,  and  the  imperative  necessity  for  a  form 
of  taxation  which  it  detested  as  oppressive,  and 
which  it  was  a  party  shibboleth  to  declare  in  and 
out  of  season,  to  be  unconstitutional.  The  choice 
of  the  administration  was  between  the  Bank  which 
Jefferson  detested  and  Gallatin  favored,  and  the 
internal  tax  which  Mr.  Gallatin  considered  as  the 

16 


242  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

most  repulsive  in  its  operation  of  any  form  of  rev 
enue. 

But  necessity  knows  no  law,  and  the  prime 
mover,  if  not  the  original  author,  of  the  opposition 
to  Hamilton's  system  was  driven  to  propose  the 
renewal  of  the  measures,  opposition  to  which  had 
brought  the  Republican  party  into  power,  and 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Treasury.  He 
now  proposed  to  raise  the  five  millions  deficiency 
by  internal  taxation  — 13,000,000  by  direct  tax 
and  $2,000,000  by  indirect  tax. 

Continuing  his  lucid  and  remarkable  report 
with  careful  details  of  the  methods  to  be  adopted, 
Gallatin  closed  with  an  urgent  recommendation 
that  the  crisis  should  at  once  be  met  by  the  adop 
tion  of  efficient  measures  to  provide,  with  cer 
tainty,  means  commensurate  with  the  expense, 
and  by  preserving  unimpaired,  instead  of  abus 
ing,  that  credit  on  which  the  public  resources 
eminently  depend,  to  enable  the  United  States  to 
persevere  in  the  contest  until  an  honorable  peace 
should  be  obtained.  Thus  he  held  the  bitter  cup 
to  the  lips  of  the  Republican  Congress,  which, 
however,  was  not  yet  to  drain  its  full  measure. 
War  was  declared  June  18,  1812.  On  July  1, 
1812,  an  act  was  passed  imposing  an  additional 
duty  of  one  hundred  per  cent,  on  all  importations, 
an  additional  ten  per  cent,  on  goods  brought  in 
foreign  vessels,  and  also  a  duty  of  $1.50  per  ton  on 
all  foreign  vessels.  The  duty  was  to  remain  until 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  243 

the  expiration  of  one  year  after  peace  should  be 
made  with  Great  Britain.  On  December  5, 1812, 
Mr.  Gallatin  sent  in  his  last  report.  The  balance 
in  the  treasury  was  $3,947,818.36.  His  estimate 
for  the  service  of  the  year  1813  was  a  war  budget. 
Resources,  112,000,000;  expenditures,  $31,926,- 
000;  promising  a  deficiency  of  119,925,000.  For 
this  and  other  contingencies  Mr.  Gallatin  asked 
for  a  loan  of  twenty  millions.  The  authority  was 
granted,  but  the  recommendations  of  direct  and  in 
direct  taxes  were  disregarded.  Here  Mr.  Galla- 
tin's  direct  connection  with  the  customs  system 
closed. 

The  value  of  foreign  importations  during  Madi 
son's  first  term  was  $275,230,000,  and  the  customs 
derived  from  them  thirty-eight  millions  of  dollars. 

Congress  adjourned  March  4,  1813,  but  was 
called  together  again  in  May,  when  the  subject  of 
internal  taxes  was  again  forced  upon  them.  The 
internal  revenue  was  a  part  of  Hamilton's  general 
scheme.  His  original  bill  was  passed,  and,  after 
numerous  amendments  suggested  by  trial,  its  griev 
ances  were  tempered  and  the  friction  removed. 
In  Adams's  term  it  yielded  nearly  three  millions  of 
dollars.  In  Jefferson's  first  term,  before  the  rise 
in  customs  revenue  allowed  of  its  abandonment, 
Mr.  Gallatin  drew  from  this  source  nearly  two  \ 
millions  of  dollars,  enough  to  pay  the  interest  and  I 
provide  for  the  extinguishment  of  a  six  per  cent. 


244  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

loan  of  thirty  millions;  a  war  budget  in  itself. 
But  it  had  been  so  entirely  set  aside  that  in  Jef 
ferson's  second  term,  1808-1812,  it  had  fallen  to 
a  little  over  sixty-three  thousand ;  in  Madison's 
first  term,  to  a  little  under  nineteen  thousand  dol 
lars.  Was  it  to  this  Mr.  Dallas  referred  in  that 
passage  of  his  report,  made  in  1815,  on  the  finan 
cial  operations  of  the  war,  in  which  he  expresses 
his  regret  "  that  there  existed  no  system  by  which 
the  internal  resources  of  the  country  could  be 
brought  at  once  into  action,  when  the  resources  of 
its  external  commerce  became  incompetent  to  an 
swer  the  exigencies  of  the  time?  The  existence 
of  such  a  system  would  probably  have  invigorated 
the  early  movements  of  the  war,  might  have  pre 
served  the  public  credit  unimpaired,  and  would 
have  rendered  the  pecuniary  contributions  of  the 
people  more  equal,  as  well  as  more  effective."  "  It 
certainly,"  to  use  the  words  of  this  Mr.  Gallatin's 
oldest  and  best  political  friend,  "  furnishes  a  lesson 
of  practical  policy."  Disagreeable  as  the  neces 
sity  was,  it  could  not  be  avoided,  and  Mr.  Galla- 
tin  met  it  manfully.  Nay  more,  he  seems  to  have 
had  a  grim  satisfaction  in  proposing  the  measure 
to  the  Congress  which  had  thwarted  him  in  his 
plans.  In  accordance  with  his  suggestions,  Con 
gress,  in  the  extra  session  of  May,  1813,  laid  a 
direct  tax  of  $3,000,000  upon  the  States,  and  spe 
cific  duties  upon  refined  sugar,  carriages,  licenses 
to  distillers  of  spirituous  liquors,  sales  at  auction, 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      245 

licenses  to  retailers  of  wines,  and  upon  notes  of 
banks  and  bankers.  These  duties,  in  the  beginning 
temporary,  were  calculated  to  yield  $500,000,  and 
•with  the  direct  tax  to  give  a  sum  of  $3,500,000. 
But  the  increasing  expenditures  again  requiring 
additional  sums  of  revenue,  the  duties  were  made 
permanent  and  additional  taxes  were  laid  ;  the  en 
tire  revenue  for  1815  being  raised  so  as  to  yield 
$12,400,000.  In  the  second  term  of  Mr.  Madison 
the  internal  revenue  brought  in  nearly  eleven  and 
a  half  millions.  The  Federalists,  who  as  a  party 
were  opposed  to  the  war,  enjoyed  the  situation  , 
Mr.  Gallatin  was  compelled  to  impose  the  internal  j! 
revenue  tax  which  he  detested,  and  Mr.  Dallas 
was  called  upon  to  enforce  its  application. 

The  only  remaining  source  of  revenue  was  the 
sale  of  public  lands.  This  also  was  a  part  of 
Hamilton's  original  scheme.  The  public  lands  of 
the  United  States  were  acquired  in  three  different 
ways,  namely,  1,  by  cessions  from  the  States  of 
such  lands  as  they  claimed,  or  were  entitled  to  by 
their  original  grants  or  charters  from  the  crown, 
while  colonies  ;  2,  by  purchase  from  Indian  tribes  ; 
3,  by  treaties  with  foreign  nations  ;  those  of  1783 
and  1794  with  Great  Britain,  of  1795  with  Spain, 
and  of  1803  with  France.  The  need  of  bringing 
this  vast  territory  under  the  control  of  the  govern 
ment  and  disposing  of  it  for  settlement  was  early 
apparent.  In  July,  1791,  Hamilton  sent  in  to  the 


246  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

House  a  report  on  "  A  uniform  system  for  the  dis 
position  of  the  lands,  the  property  of  the  United 
States."  In  March  preceding,  grants  of  the  United 
States  had  confirmed  to  the  actual  settlers  in  the 
Illinois  country  the  possession  of  their  farms.  But 
what  with  the  Indian  wars  and  the  rebellion 
within  the  United  States,  no  action  was  taken  by 
Congress  to  carry  the  recommendations  of  the 
Secretary  into  effect,  until  Mr.  Gallatin,  whose 
residence  on  the  frontier  gave  him  direct  interest 
in  the  subject,  brought  up  the  matter  at  the  very 
first  session  he  attended.  In  1796  a  bill  was 
passed  authorizing  and  regulating  the  sale  of  lands 
northwest  of  the  Ohio  and  above  the  mouth  of  the 
Kentucky  River,  and  a  surveyor-general  was  ap 
pointed  with  directions  to  lay  out  these  lands  in 
townships.  The  sales  under  Adams's  administra 
tions  were  trifling,  the  total  amount  received  from 
this  source  before  the  year  1800  being  slightly 
over  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  In  May,  1800, 
sales  of  the  same  lands  were  authorized  at  public 
vendue  at  not  less  than  two  dollars  per  acre  ;  four 
land  offices  were  established  in  the  territory  ;  sur 
veyors  were  appointed,  and  a  register  of  the  land 
office  was  made  a  permanent  official.  In  March, 
1803,  an  act  was  passed  to  regulate  the  sale  of  the 
United  States  lands  south  of  the  Tennessee  River, 
two  land  offices  were  established  and  public  sale 
provided  for  at  the  same  price  set  in  the  act  of 
1800.  In  March,  1804,  the  Indiana  lands  lying 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      247 

north  of  the  Ohio  and  east  of  the  Mississippi  were 
brought  within  similar  regulations,  and  an  act 
was  passed  concerning  the  country  acquired  under 
Spanish  and  British  grants.  In  the  same  month 
Louisiana  was  erected  into  two  territories.  The 
sums  received  from  the  sales  during  the  first  term 
of  Jefferson's  administration  amounted  to  little 
more  than  one  million  of  dollars.  In  January, 
1805,  the  territory  of  Indiana  was  divided  into 
two  separate  governments  ;  that  one  which  was  set 
off  received  the  name  of  Michigan,  and  in  1808, 
its  territory  was  brought  under  the  regulations  of 
the  land  office. 

The  sums  received  from  the  sales  in  the  second 
term  of  Jefferson's  administration  reached  nearly 
two  and  one  half  millions  of  dollars,  and  in  Mad 
ison's  first  term,  nearly  three  millions  of  dollars. 
From  first  to  last  Mr.  Gallatin  never  lost  sight 
of  the  subject,  though  occasion  did  not  serve  for 
more  than  organization  of  the  system  which,  in 
the  four  years  ending  1836,  yielded  nearly  fifty 
million  dollars,  and  paid  more  than  one  third  of 
the  entire  expenses  of  the  government.  To  John 
W.  Eppes  l  Mr.  Gallatin  wrote  in  the  crisis  of 
1813,  "  The  public  lands  constitute  the  only  great 
national  resource  exclusive  of  loans  and  taxes.  ^ 
They  have  already  been  mentioned  as  a  fund  for 
the  ultimate  extinguishment  of  the  public  debt." 
The  land  offices  were  then  in  full  operation. 
1  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means. 


248  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

In  1810  Mr.  Gallatin  prepared  an  "  Introduction 
to  the  collection  of  laws,  treaties,  and  other  docu 
ments  respecting  the  public  lands,"  which  was 
published  pursuant  to  an  act  of  Congress  passed  in 
April  of  that  year. 

FREE   TRADE. 

While  Mr.  Gallatin  differed  from  his  early  Re 
publican  associates  in  many  of  their  theories  of 
administration,  he  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  best 
of  their  principles,  namely,  the  wisdom  of  giving 
free  scope  to  the  development  of  national  resources 
with  the  least  possible  interference  on  the  part  of 
government.  One  of  his  purposes  in  his  persistent 
desire  for  economy  in  expenditure  was  to  reduce 
the  tariff  upon  foreign  importations  to  the  lowest 
practicable  limit.  He  was  the  earliest  public  ad 
vocate  in  America  of  the  principles  of  free  trade, 
and  an  experience  of  sixty  years  confirmed  him  in 
his  convictions. 

The  extinguishment  of  the  debt  rendered  a  great 
reduction  in  the  revenue  possible.  On  the  other 
"I""*  hand,  it  brought  the  friends  of  a  low  tariff  face  to 
face  with  the  problem  of  internal  improvements. 
As  the  election  of  1832  drew  near,  the  advocates 
of  the  two  systems  ranged  themselves  in  two  great 
parties  precisely  as  to-day  :  the  advocates  of  the 
protective  or  American  system  with  internal  im 
provements  as  an  outlet  for  accumulations  of  rev 
enue  on  the  one  side  ;  on  the  other  the  advocates 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY. 

of  free  trade.  Between  his  desire  for  the  advan 
tages  of  the  one  with  its  attendant  disadvantages 
of  government  interference  in  its  prosecution,  and 
the  freedom  of  commerce  from  undue  restrictions, 
Mr.  Gallatin  did  not  hesitate.  He  threw  the 
whole  force  of  his  experience  and  character  into 
the  free  trade  cause,  and  became  the  leader  of  itsf 
friends. 

On  September  30,  1831,  a  convention  of  the  ad 
vocates  of  free  trade,  without  distinction  of  party, 
met  at  the  Musical  Fund  Hall  in  Philadelphia. 
Two  hundred  and  twelve  delegates  appeared. 
Among  them  were  Theodore  Sedgwick,  George 
Peabody,  and  John  L.  Gardner  from  Massachu 
setts  ;  Preserved  Fish,  John  Constable,  John  A. 
Stevens,  Jonathan  Goodhue,  James  Boorman, 
Jacob  Lorillard,  and  Albert  Gallatin  from  New 
York;  C.  C.  Biddle,  George  Emlen,  Isaac  W.  Nor- 
ris  from  Pennsylvania ;  Langdon  Cheves,  Henry 
Middleton,  Joseph  W.  Allston,  and  William  C. 
Preston  from  South  Carolina ;  and  men  of  equal 
distinction,  bankers,  merchants,  statesmen,  and  po 
litical  economists  from  other  States.  Of  this  con 
vention  Mr.  Gallatin  was  the  soul.  He  opened  its 
business  by  stating  the  objects  of  the  meeting,  and 
nominated  the  Hon.  Philip  P.  Barbour  of  Vir 
ginia  for  president.  A  general  committee  of  two 
from  each  State  was  appointed,  which  recom 
mended  an  address  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States  and  a  memorial  to  Congress.  The  address 


ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

to  the  people  closed  with  a  declaration  that  the 
near  extinguishment  of  the  national  debt,  which 
would  be  discharged  by  the  available  funds  of  the 
government  on  January  1,  1833,  suggested  that 
the  moment  was  propitious  for  the  establishment 
of  the  principles  of  free  trade.  Thus  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  who  had  successfully  as 
serted  the  doctrines  of  free  government,  might 
add  to  its  claims  upon  the  gratitude  of  the  world 
by  being  the  first  also  to  proclaim  the  theory  of 
a  free  and  unrestricted  commerce,  the  genuine 
"  American  system."  Mr.  Gallatin  was  the  chair 
man  of  the  committee  of  fourteen,  one  from  each 
State  represented  in  the  convention,  to  prepare 
the  memorial  which  was  presented  in  their  behalf 
to  Congress,  the  conclusions  of  which,  presented 
with  his  consummate  ability,  demonstrated  with 
mathematical  precision  that  a  duty  of  twenty-five 
per  cent,  was  sufficient  for  all  the  legitimate  pur 
poses  of  government.  Here  he  found  himself  in 
direct  opposition  to  Mr.  Clay,  whose  political  ex 
istence  was  staked  upon  the  opposite  theory.  Mr. 
Clay  answered  in  a  great  speech  in  the  Senate  in 
February,  1832,  and  forgot  himself  in  personal  de 
nunciation  of  Mr.  Gallatin  as  a  foreigner  with  Eu 
ropean  interests  at  heart,  and  of  Utopian  ideas ; 
for  this  he  expressed  his  regret  to  Mr.  Gallatin  in 
an  interview  arranged  by  mutual  friends  at  a 
much  later  period.  Mr.  Gallatin's  views  were  ac 
cepted  as  the  policy  of  the  country,  and  after  some 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  251 

shifting  of  parties,  in  which  friends  and  foes 
changed  ground  in  subordination  to  other  political 
exigencies,  they  prevailed  in  the  tariff  of  1846, 
the  best  arranged  and  most  reasonable  which  the 
United  States  has  yet  seen.  The  issue  is  again 
before  the  American  people  and  fortunately  with 
out  extraneous  political  circumstances  to  divert  at 
tention  from  its  true  merits.  The  signs  of  the 
times  fail,  if  the  result  be  not  the  same,  and  if 
the  descendants  of  those  Whigs  who  were  scorn 
fully  termed  "  white  crows,"  because  they  subor 
dinated  their  economic  ideas  to  what  they  held  to 
be  vital  principles  on  the  questions  of  executive 
power  and  the  extension  of  slavery  into  the  terri 
tories,  do  not  again  turn  the  scale  in  favor  of  a 
revenue  system  in  accord  with  the  liberal  spirit  of 
the  age. 

ADMINISTRATION. 

To  arrive  at  a  correct  estimate  of  Mr.  Galla- 
tin's  administration  of  the  Treasury  Department, 
a  cursory  review  of  the  establishment  as  he  re 
ceived  it  from  the  hands  of  Mr.  Wolcott  is  neces 
sary.  This  review  is  confined  to  administration 
in  its  limited  sense,  namely,  the  direction  of  its 
clerical  management  under  the  provisions  of  stat 
ute  law.  The  organization  of  the  department  as 
originated  by  Hamilton  and  established  by  the  act 
of  September  2, 1789,  provided  for  a  secretary  of 
the  treasury  as  head  of  the  department,  whose 


252  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

general  duty  should  be  to  supervise  the  fiscal  af« 
fairs  of  the  country,  and  particularly  to  suggest 
and  prepare  plans  for  the  improvement  and  sup 
port  of  the  public  credit ;  and,  under  his  direction 
and  supervision,  a  comptroller  to  adjust  and  pre 
serve  accounts ;  an  auditor  to  receive,  examine, 
and  rectify  accounts  ;  a  treasurer  to  receive,  keep, 
and  disburse  moneys  on  warrants  signed  and  coun 
tersigned  ;  a  register  to  keep  the  accounts  of  re 
ceipts  and  expenditures ;  and  an  assistant  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  fill  any  vacancy  from 
absence  or  other  temporary  cause.  In  addition 
to  the  departments  of  State,  Treasury,  and  War, 
a  fourth,  that  of  the  Navy,  was  established  April 
30,  1798.  The  three  departments  were  brought 
into  relation  with  that  of  the  Treasury  by  an  act 
passed  July  16,  1798,  supplementary  to  that  or 
ganizing  the  Treasury,  and  which  provided,  1st, 
for  the  appointment  of  an  accountant  in  each 
department,  who  was  required  to  report  to  the 
accounting  officer  of  the  Treasury ;  2d,  that  the 
Treasurer  of  the  United  States  should  only  dis 
burse  by  warrants  on  the  Treasury,  countersigned 
by  the  accountant  of  the  Treasury  ;  3d,  that  all 
purchases  for  supplies  for  military  or  naval  ser 
vice  should  be  subject  to  the  inspection  and  re 
vision  of  the  officers  of  the  Treasury.  Mr.  Jef 
ferson,  after  his  usual  fashion  of  economy  in  the 
wrong  direction,  proposed  to  Mr.  Gallatin  "  to 
amalgamate  the  comptroller  and  auditor  into  one, 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      253 

and  reduce  the  register  to  a  clerk  of  accounts :  so 
that  the  organization  should  consist,  as  it  should 
at  first,  of  a  keeper  of  money,  a  keeper  of  ac 
counts,  and  the  head  of  the  department."  But  in 
the  Treasury  Department  there  was  no  extrava 
gance  during  Gallatin's  administration,  and  the 
shifting  of  responsibility  would  bring  no  saving 
of  salaries. 

In  May,  1800,  an  act  was  passed  making  it  "the 
duty  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  digest, 
prepare,  and  lay  before  Congress  at  the  commence 
ment  of  every  session  a  report  on  the  subject  of 
finances,  containing  estimates  of  the  public  reve 
nue  and  expenditures,  and  plans  for  improving 
and  increasing  the  revenue  from  time  to  time,  for 
the  purpose  of  giving  information  to  Congress  in 
adopting  modes  for  raising  the  money  requisite  to 
meet  the  expenditures."  Hamilton  had  never 
sent  in  any  other  than  a  statement  of  expenditure 
for  the  past  fiscal  year,  together  with  the  esti 
mate  of  the  accountant  of  the  Treasury  for  the 
proximate  wants  of  the  departments  of  govern 
ment.  Mr.  Gallatin  incorporated  in  his  annual -U 
report  a  balance  sheet  in  accordance  with  the  or 
dinary  forms  of  book-keeping  familiar  to  every 
accountant  and  indispensable  in  every  business  es 
tablishment,  and  such  as  is  presented  to  the  pub 
lic  in  the  monthly  and  annual  statements  of  the 
Treasury  Department  at  this  day. 

The  statutes  show  no   legislation   during   Mr. 


254  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

Gallatin's  period  of  administration,  and  to  its 
close  he  was  in  continual  struggle  to  force  upon 
Congress  and  the  departments  an  accord  with  his 
•L  pet  plan  of  minute  specific  appropriation  of  the 
sums  estimated  for  and  expended  by  each.  Mr. 
Madison  heartily  agreed  with  Mr.  Gallatin  on 
this  subject,  and  on  taking  office  placed  the  rela 
tions  of  the  State  Department  upon  the  desired 
footing.  But  the  heads  of  the  Army  and  Navy 
were  never  willing  to  consent  to  the  strict  lim 
itation  which  Mr.  Gallatin  would  have  imposed 
on  their  expenditures.  In  his  notes  to  Jeffer 
son  for  the  draft  of  his  first  message  in  1801, 
Mr.  Gallatin  said  that  the  most  important  reform 
he  could  suggest  was  that  of  '  specific  appropri 
ations,'  and  he  inclosed  an  outline  of  a  form  to 
be  enforced  in  detail.  In  January,  1802,  he  sent 
to  Joseph  H.  Nicholson  a  series  of  inquiries  to  be 
addressed  to  himself  by  a  special  committee  on 
the  subject,  with  regard  to  the  mode  by  which 
money  was  drawn  from  the  Treasury  and  the  situ 
ation  of  accounts  between  that  department  and 
those  of  the  Army  and  Navy.  To  these  ques 
tions  he  sent  in  to  the  House  an  elaborate  reply, 
which  he  intended  to  be  the  basis  of  legislation. 
Strict  appropriation  was  the  ideal  at  which  he 
aimed,  and  this  word  was  so  often  on  his  tongue 
or  in  his  messages  that  it  could  not  be  mentioned 
without  a  suggestion  of  his  personality.  He  car 
ried  the  same  nicety  of  detail  into  his  domestic 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  255 

life.  He  managed  his  own  household  expenses, 
and  at  a  time  when  bountiful  stores  were  the 
fashion  in  every  household  he  insisted  on  a  rigid 
observance  of  the  more  precise  French  system. 
He  made  an  appropriation  of  a  certain  sum  each 
day  for  his  expenses,  and  required  from  his  pur 
veyor  a  strict  daily  account  of  disbursements. 
An  amusing  story  is  told  of  him  at  his  own  table. 
On  an  occasion  when  entertaining  a  company  at 
dinner,  he  was  dissatisfied  with  the  me'nu  and  ex 
pressed  his  disapprobation  to  his  maitre  d'hotel, 
a  Frenchman,  who  replied  to  him  in  broken  Eng 
lish,  that  it  was  not  his  fault,  but  that  of  the 
"  ma) -appropriations." 

The  example  set  by  Mr.  Gallatin  in  this  partic 
ular  was  never  forgotten,  and  from  his  day  to  this 
strict  accountability  has  been  the  tradition  of  the 
Treasury  Department,  now  greatly  increased  in 
detail,  but  in  structure  essentially  as  it  was  orig 
inally  organized.  Of  its  management  Mr.  Sher 
man  was  able  to  say  in  his  report  of  December  1, 
1879,  "  The  organization  of  the  several  bureaus  is 
such,  and  the  system  of  accounting  so  perfect,  that 
the  financial  transactions  of  the  government  dur 
ing  the  past  two  years,  aggregating  $3,354,345,- 
040.53,  have  been  adjusted  without  question  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  small  balances,  now  in  the 
process  of  collection,  of  which  it  is  believed  that  the 
government  will  eventually  lose  less  than  $13,000, 
or  less  than  four  mills  for  each  $1,000  of  the 


256  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

amount  involved ; "  and  in  1880  he  said  with  entire 
truth,  "  The  department  is  a  well  organized  and 
well  conducted  business  office,  depending  mainly 
for  its  success  upon  the  integrity  and  fidelity  of 
the  heads  of  bureaus  and  chiefs  of  divisions." 

BANKING. 

There  is  no  more  instructive  chapter  in  the  his 
tory  of  finance  than  that  upon  the  banking  system 
of  the  United  States.  It  has  its  distinct  eras  of 
radical  change,  each  of  which  presents  a  series  of 
tentative  experiments.  The  outcome,  by  a  proc 
ess  of  development,  in  which  political  expedi 
ency  has  been  as  effective  an  agency  as  financial 
necessity,  is  the  present  national  banking  system. 
Though  the  term  government  or  national  bank  is 
constantly  used  in  reference  to  the  great  banking 
institutions  of  England,  France,  and  the  United 
States,  no  one  of  these  is  in  the  true  sense  of  the 
word  a  national  bank.  The  Bank  of  England  is 
a  chartered  corporation,  the  Bank  of  France  an  as 
sociation  instituted  by  law.  The  Bank  of  North 
America,  and  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  which 
followed  it,  were  founded  on  the*  same  principle. 
Both  were  corporations  of  individuals  intimately 
connected  with  the  government,  enjoying  certain 
privileges  accorded  and  being  under  certain  restric 
tions,  but  otherwise  independent  of  government 
control. 

The  Bank  of  North  America,  the  first  bank  es* 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  257 

tablished  in  the  United  States,  was  also  the  first 
which  had  any  direct  relation  to  the  government. 
It  was  the  conception  of  the  comprehensive  and 
original  mind  of  Robert  Morris,  the  financier  or 
superintendent  of  the  public  finances  of  the 
United  States.  Its  purpose  was  not  the  conven 
ience  or  profit  of  individuals,  but  to  draw  together 
the  scattered  financial  resources  of  the  country 
and  found  a  public  credit.  He  submitted  his  plan 
to  Congress,  which  adopted  a  resolution  of  ap 
proval  May  26,  1781.  The  original  plan  contem 
plated  a  capital  of  ten  millions  of  dollars,  but  the 
collection  of  such  a  sum  in  gold  and  silver  in  one 
depository  was  beyond  the  range  of  possibility  at 
that  period,  and  the  capital  was  finally  fixed  at 
four  hundred  thousand  dollars,  in  one  thousand 
shares  of  four  hundred  dollars  each.  Subscription 
books  were  immediately  opened,  but  not  more  than 
$70,000  was  entered  during  the  summer  months. 
The  arrival  at  Boston  of  a  French  war  frigate 
with  a  remittance  of  $470,000  in  specie,  which 
was  brought  to  Philadelphia  and  deposited  in  the 
vaults  of  the  bank,  enabled  Mr.  Morris  to  mature 
his  plans.  He  designed  to  retain  this  sum  in  the 
bank  as  a  specie  basis ;  but  the  necessities  of  the 
country  were  so  urgent  during  the  critical  season 
of  the  Yorktown  campaign,  that  nearly  one  half 
of  it  was  exhausted  before  an  organization  could 
be  effected.  In  December  Congress  passed  an 
ordinance  of  incorporation.  Mr.  Morris  then  sub- 

17 


258  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

scribed  the  specie  remaining  in  the  treasury,  about 
$254,000,  for  shares  for  account  of  the  United 
States,  which  became  thereby  the  principal  stock 
holder.  The  limit  assigned  by  the  ordinance  re 
mained,  however,  at  ten  millions  of  dollars.  There 
was  nothing  in  the  acts  of  Congress  which  implied 
any  exclusive  right  of  the  United  States  govern 
ment  in  the  bank  except  during  the  war  of  the 
Revolution.  A  local  charter  was  obtained  from 
the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  bank 
was  opened  in  Philadelphia  for  the  transaction  of 
business  in  January,  1782.  Its  services  to  the  gov 
ernment  during  the  period  of  the  war  were  ines 
timable.  In  the  words  of  Hamilton,  "  American 
independence  owes  much  to  it."  But  after  the 
war  such  were  the  local  jealousies,  the  fears  of  op 
pression,  and  the  dread  of  foreign  influence,  that, 
on  the  petition  of  the  inhabitants  of  Philadelphia 
and  some  of  the  neighboring  counties,  the  Legis 
lature  of  Pennsylvania  repealed  its  charter  on 
September  13,  1785.  The  bank  continued  its 
operations,  however,  under  the  charter  from  Con 
gress.  On  March  17,  1787,  the  Legislature  of 
Pennsylvania  renewed  the  charter  for  fourteen 
years  and  limited  the  capital  to  two  millions  of 
dollars.  The  charter  was  extended  for  a  similar 
•term  of  fourteen  years  on  March  26,  1799.  Thus 
in  the  beginning  of  the  American  banking  system 
are  found  that  distrust  and  jealousy  of  money 
power  which  seem  inherent  in  democracies.  The 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      259 

exercise  of  state  jurisdiction  over  the  existence  of 
the  Bank  of  North  America  suggested  possible 
embarrassments,  which  could  not  escape  the  dis 
cernment  of  Hamilton,  whose  policy,  as  it  was  also 
that  of  the  Federal  party,  was  to  strengthen  the 
powers  of  the  government  in  every  vital  branch  of 
administrai  ion. 

In  his  comprehensive  plan  of  government  Ham 
ilton  included  a  financial  institution  to  develop 
the  national  resources,  strengthen  the  public  credit, 
aid  the  Treasury  Department  in  its  administra 
tion,  and  provide  a  secure  and  sound  circulating 
medium  for  the  people.  On  December  13,  1790, 
he  sent  in  to  Congress  a  report  on  the  subject  of 
a  national  bank.  The  Republican  party,  then  in 
the  minority,  opposed  the  plan  as  unconstitutional, 
on  the  ground  that  the  power  of  creating  banks 
or  any  corporate  body  had  not  been  expressly  del 
egated  to  Congress,  and  was  therefore  not  possessed 
by  it.  Washington's  cabinet  was  divided ;  Jeffer 
son  opposing  the  measure  as  not  within  the  im 
plied  powers,  because  it  was  an  expediency  and  not 
a  paramount  necessity.  Later  he  used  stronger 
language,  and  denounced  the  institution  as  "  one 
of  the  most  deadly  hostility  existing  against  the 
principles  and  form  of  our  Constitution,"  nor  did 
he  ever  abandon  these  views.  There  is  the  au- 
thority  of  Mr.  Gallatin  for  saying  that  Jefferson 
u  died  a  decided  enemy  to  our  banking  system  gen 
erally,  and  specially  to  a  bank  of  the  United 


260  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

States."  But  Hamilton's  views  prevailed.  Wash 
ington,  who  in  the  weary  years  of  war  had  seen  the 
imperative  necessity  of  some  national  organization 
of  the  finances,  after  mature  deliberation  approved 
the  plan,  and  on  February  25,  1791,  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States  was  incorporated.  The  capital 
stock  was  limited  to  twenty-five  thousand  shares 
of  four  hundred  dollars  each,  or  ten  millions  of 
dollars,  payable  one  fourth  in  gold  and  silver,  and 
three  fourths  in  public  securities  bearing  an  inter 
est  of  six  and  three  per  cent.  The  stock  was  im 
mediately  subscribed  for,  the  government  taking 
five  thousand  shares,  two  millions  of  dollars,  under 
the  right  reserved  in  the  charter.  The  subscrip 
tion  of  the  United  States  was  paid  in  ten  equal  an 
nual  instalments.  A  large  proportion  of  the  stock 
was  held  abroad,  and  the  shares  soon  rose  above 
par.  By  an  act  of  March  2, 1791,  the  funded  three 
per  cents  were  also  made  receivable  in  payment  of 
subscriptions  to  the  bank,  whence  it  has  been  said 
that  out  of  the  funding  system  sprung  the  bank, 
as  three  fourths  of  its  capital  consisted  of  public 
stocks.  Authority  was  given  the  bank  to  establish 
offices  of  discount  and  deposit  within  the  United 
States.  The  chief  bank  was  placed  in  Philadel 
phia  and  branches  were  established  in  eight  cities, 
with  capitals  in  proportion  to  their  commercial  im 
portance. 

In   1809  the  stockholders  of  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  memorialized  the  government  for  a 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  261 

renewal  of  their  charter,  which  would  expire  on 
March  4,  1811 ;  and  on  March  9,  1809,  Mr.  Galla- 
tin  sent  in  a  report  in  which  he  reviewed  the  oper 
ations  of  the  bank  from  its  organization.  Of  the 
government  shares,  five  million  dollars  at  par,  two 
thousand  four  hundred  and  ninety-three  shares 
were  sold  in  1796  and  1797  at  an  advance  of  25 
per  cent.,  two  hundred  and  eighty-seven  in  1797 
at  an  advance  of  20  per  cent.,  and  the  remaining 
2,220  shares  in  1802,  at  an  advance  of  45  per  cent., 
making  together,  exclusive  of  the  dividends,  a 
profit  of  8671,680  to  the  United  States.  Eighteen 
thousand  shares  of  the  bank  stock  were  held 
abroad,  and  seven  thousand  shares,  or  a  little 
more  than  one  fourth  part  of  the  capital,  in  the 
United  States.  A  table  of  all  the  dividends 
made  by  the  bank  showed  that  they  had  on  the 
average  been  at  the  rate  of  8|  (precisely  8J|)  per 
cent,  a  year,  which  proved  that  the  bank  had  not 
in  any  considerable  degree  used  the  public  depos 
its  for  the  purpose  of  extending  its  discounts. 
From  a  general  view  of  the  debits  and  credits, 
as  presented,  it  appeared  that  the  affairs  of  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States,  considered  as  a  mon 
eyed  institution,  had  been  wisely  and  skilfully 
managed.  The  advantages  derived  by  the  gov 
ernment  Mr.  Gallatin  stated  to  be,  1,  safe-keep 
ing  of  the  public  moneys  ;  2,  transmission  of  the 
public  moneys  ;  3,  collection  of  the  revenue  ;  4, 
loans.  The  strongest  objection  to  the  renewal  of 


262  ALBERT   GALLATIN. 

the  charter  lay  in  the  great  portion  of  the  bank 
stock  held  by  foreigners.  Not  on  account  of  any 
influence  over  the  institution,  since  they  had  no 
vote  ;  but  because  of  the  high  rate  of  interest  pay 
able  by  America  to  foreign  countries.  If  the  char 
ter  were  not  renewed  the  principal  of  that  portion, 
amounting  to  §7,200,000,  must  at  once  be  remitted 
abroad ;  but  if  the  charter  were  renewed,  dividends 
equal  to  an  interest  of  about  8|  per  cent,  per  an 
num  must  be  remitted.  Mr.  Gallatin's  report 
closed  with  the  following  suggestions:  — 

I.  That  the  bank  should  pay  an  interest  to  the 
United  States  on  the  public  deposits  above  a  cer 
tain  sum. 

II.  That  it  should  be  bound  to  lend  the  United 
States  a  sum  not  exceeding  three  fifths  of  its  capi 
tal. 

III.  That  the  capital  stock  of  the  bank  should 
be  increased   to  thirty  millions  of   dollars,  to  be 
subscribed  for,  1,  five  millions  by  citizens  of  the 
United   States  ;  2,  fifteen  millions  by  the  States', 
a  branch  to  be  established   in    each   subscribing 
State  ;  3,  payments  by  either  individuals  or  States 
to  be  in  specie  or  public  stock  of  the  United  States 
at  rates  to  be  fixed  by  law ;  the  subscribing  States 
to  pay  in  ten  annual  instalments. 

IV.  That  some  share  should  be  given  in  the  di 
rection  to  the  general  and  state  governments  by 
appointment  of  directors  in  the  general  direction 
and  branches. 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      263 

The  result  of  this  plan  would  be,  1st,  that  the 
United  States  might,  from  the  interest  on  the 
public  deposits,  accumulate  during  years  of  peace 
and  prosperity  a  treasure  sufficient  to  meet  peri 
ods  of  war  and  calamity;  2d,  that  they  might 
rely  on  a  loan  of  eighteen  millions  of  dollars 
in  any  sudden  emergency ;  3d,  that  by  the  pay 
ment  in  ten  instalments  the  increase  in  capital 
would  be  in  proportion  to  the  progressive  state 
of  the  country ;  4th,  that  the  bank  itself  would 
form  an  additional  bond  of  common  interest  and 
union  amongst  the  several  States.  But  these  ar 
guments  availed  not  against  the  blind  and  igno 
rant  jealousy  of  the  Republican  majority  in  the 
House.  The  days  of  the  bank  were  numbered. 
Congress  refused  to  prolong  its  existence  and  the 
institution  was  dissolved.  Fortunately  for  the 
country,  it  wound  up  its  affairs  with  such  delibera 
tion  and  prudence  as  to  allow  of  the  interposition 
of  other  bank  credits  in  lieu  of  those  withdrawn, 
and  thus  prevented  a  serious  shock  to  the  interests 
of  the  community.  In  the  twenty  years  of  its  ex 
istence  from  1791  to  1811  its  management  was  ir 
reproachable.  Its  annual  dividends  from  1791 
to  1809  were  8f  per  cent.,  and  its  stock,  always 
above  par,  from  1805  to  1809  ranged  from  20  to 
40  per  cent,  premium. 

In  its  numerous  and  varied  relations  to  the  gov 
ernment  it  had  been  a  useful  and  faithful  servant, 
and  its  directors  had  never  assumed  the  attitude 


264  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

of  money  kings,  of  which  the  Jeffersonian  democ 
racy  pretended  to  stand  in  hourly  dread.  To  the 
general  and  important  nature  of  its  financial  ser 
vice  Mr.  Gallatin  gave  his  testimony  in  1830; 
after  his  own  direct  participation  in  public  affairs 
had  ended. 

"  Experience,  however,  has  since  confirmed  the  great 
utility  and  importance  of  a  bank  of  the  United  States 
in  its  connection  with  the  Treasury.  The  first  great  ad 
vantage  derived  from  it  consists  in  the  safe-keeping  of 
the  public  moneys,  securing  in  the  first  instance  the  im 
mediate  payment  of  those  received  by  the  principal  col 
lectors,  and  affording  a  constant  check  on  all  their  trans 
actions  ;  and  afterwards  rendering  a  defalcation  in  the 
moneys  once  paid,  and  whilst  nominally  in  the  treasury, 
absolutely  impossible.  The  next,  and  not  less  impor 
tant,  benefit  is  to  be  found  in  the  perfect  facility  with 
which  all  the  public  payments  are  made  by  checks  or 
treasury  drafts,  payable  at  any  place  where  the  bank 
has  an  office ;  all  those  who  have  demands  against  gov 
ernment  are  paid  in  the  place  most  convenient  to  them ; 
and  the  public  moneys  are  transferred  through  our  exten 
sive  territory  at  a  moment's  warning  without  any  risk 
or  expense,  to  the  places  most  remote  from  those  of  col 
lection,  and  wherever  public  exigencies  may  require." 


V 


:Late  in  life,  in  a  letter  to  John  M.  Botts,  June 
14, 1841,  Mr.  Gallatin  expressed  the  same  opinions 
with  regard  to  the  usefulness  of  a  government 
bank  as  an  aid  to  the  Treasury  Department, 
but  limited  his  approval  to  that  use.  "  Except 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      265 

in  its  character  of  fiscal  agent  to  the  general  gov 
ernment  I  attach  much  less  importance  to  a  na 
tional  bank  than  several  of  those  who  are  in  fa 
vor  of  it."  "  Did  I  believe,"  he  adds  in  the  same 
letter,  "  that  a  bank  of  the  United  States  would 
effectually  secure  us  a  sound  currency,  I  would 
think  it  a  duty  at  all  hazards  to  promote  the  ob 
ject." 

The  reason  for  his  doubts  in  1841  is  easily 
seen  in  the  impossibility  of  annihilating  or  con 
trolling  the  three  hundred  district  currencies  of 
as  many  banks,  each  nominally  convertible  into 
specie  at  its  point  of  issue ;  a  financial  puzzle 
which  Mr.  Chase  solved  in  the  device  and  organ 
ization  of  the  present  national  banking  system, 
which,  without  involving  the  government  in  bank 
ing  operations,  affords  to  the  people  a  homoge 
neous  currency  of  uniform  value,  and  secures  its 
convertibility  by  reasonable  but  absolute  restric 
tions,  upon  conformity  to  which  the  existence  of 
the  banks  depends.  The  exigencies  of  war  com 
pelled  an  acquiescence  in  the  plans  of  Mr.  Chase, 
which,  at  the  time  when  Mr.  Gallatin  expressed 
his  doubts,  could  not  have  been  had  in  any  system 
whatever  which  involved  the  subordination  of  the 
banks. 

The  wide  spread  of  the  state  bank  system, 
with  its  irresponsible  and  unlimited  issues,  occur 
ring  subsequent  to  Mr.  Gallatin's  withdrawal  from 
the  Treasury,  was  a  consequence  of  the  failure 


266  ALBERT  GALLAT1N. 

to  renew  the  charter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States ;  and  if  ever  there  were  a  system  by  which 
the  inhabitants  of  States,  whose  floating  capital 
was  small,  were  placed  at  the  mercy  of  moneyed 
corporations  of  the  States  where  it  was  abundant, 
it  was  the  state  bank  system.  The  experience  of 
the  old  confederation  had  not  taught  this  lesson. 
The  colonial  system  was  continued  by  the  several 
States,  and  bills  of  credit  were  issued  on  their 
faith.  The  continental  system  was  a  compound 
of  the  main  features  of  this  plan.  The  bills  were 
issued  by  the  Congress,  but  the  States  were  relied 
upon  for  their  ultimate  redemption. 

The  collapse  of  the  entire  fabric  of  finance  led 
to  the  establishment  of  the  Bank  of  North  Amer 
ica,  the  notes  of  which  were  redeemable  and  re 
deemed  at  the  bank  counters.  The  article  in  the 
Constitution  of  1787,  prohibiting  the  issue  of 
bills  of  credit  by  the  States,  was  evidently  in 
tended  to  secure  a  uniform  currency  to  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States,  and  it  has  been  by  a 
strange  perversion  of  this  manifest  intention  that 
the  power  has  been  conceded  to  the  States  to  char 
ter  corporations  to  do  that  which  was  forbidden 
to  themselves  in  their  sovereign  capacity  ;  namely, 
to  issue  bills  of  credit,  which  bank-notes  are.  It 
is  idle  to  say  that,  because  such  bills  were  not  a 
"legal  tender,"  they  were  therefore  not  of  the 
character  which  the  Constitution  forbade.  Neces 
sity  knows  no  law,  and  in  the  absence  of  any  other 


SECRETARY  OF  THE   TREASURY. 


267 


currency  the  people  were  perforce  compelled  to 
take  what  they  could  get.  Experience  later  showed 
that  large  amounts  of  paper  money  manufactured 
in  one  State  were  easily  put  in  circulation  in 
far  distant  communities,  and  considerable  sums 
through  the  operations  of  wear  and  tear  and  the 
vicissitudes  incident  to  its  fragile  nature,  never 
returned  to  plague  the  inventor. 

At  the  time  of  the  organization  of  the  National 
Bank  by  Hamilton,  there  were  but  three  banks  in 
the  United  States  :  the  Bank  of  North  America, 
the  Bank  of  New  York,  and  the  Bank  of  Massa 
chusetts.  Their  added  capital  amounted  to  two 
millions  of  dollars,  and  their  issues  were  inconsid 
erable. 

Mr.  Gallatin  estimated  that  in  January,  1811, 
just  before  the  expiration  of  the  bank  charter, 
there  were  in  the  United  States  eighty-eight  state 
banks  with  a  capital  of  $42,612,000. 


Capital. 

Notes  in  Circu 
lation. 

Specie. 

Bank  of  the  United  States 
Eighty-eight  State  Banks 

$10,000,000 
42,610,601 

#5,400,000 
22,700,000 

$5,800,000 
9,600,000 

$52,610,601 

$28,100,000 

$15,400,000 

Over  the  local  institutions  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  always  exercised  a  salutary  control, 
checking  any  disposition  to  overtrade  by  restrain- 


268  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

ing  their  issues  and  holding  them  to  a  proper 
specie  reserve ;  and  this  by  no  other  interference 
except  its  countenance  or  ill  favor,  as  such  banks 
severally  observed  or  disregarded  the  ordinary 
rules  of  financial  prudence.  The  immediate  ef 
fect  of  the  refusal  of  Congress  to  recharter  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States  was  to  bring  the 
Treasury  to  the  verge  of  bankruptcy.  The  in 
terference  of  Parish,  Girard,  and  Astor  alone 
saved  the  credit  of  the  government,  and  this  in 
terference  was  no  doubt  prompted  by  self-inter 
est.  That  Mr.  Astor  was  hostile  to  the  bank  is 
certain.  Gallatin  wrote  to  Madison  in  January, 
1811,  that  Mr.  Astor  had  sent  him  a  verbal  mes 
sage,  "  that  in  case  of  non-renewal  of  the  charter 
of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  all  his  funds 
and  those  of  his  friends,  to  the  amount  of  two  mil 
lions  of  dollars,  would  be  at  the  command  of  gov 
ernment,  either  in  importing  specie,  circulating 
government  paper,  or  in  any  other  way  best  cal 
culated  to  prevent  any  injury  arising  from  the 
dissolution  of  the  bank,"  and  he  added  that  Mr. 
Bentson,  Mr.  Astor's  son-in-law,  in  communicating 
this  message  said,  "  that  in  this  instance  profit  was 
not  Mr.  Astor's  object,  and  that  he  would  go  great 
lengths,  partly  from  pride  and  partly  from  wish,  to 
see  the  bank  down."  In  1813,  when  the  bank  was 
"  down,"  Mr.  Gallatin  was  no  longer  master  of  the 
situation.  He  offered  to  treat  directly  with  Parish, 
Givard,  and  Astor  for  ten  millions  of  dollars,  but 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  269 

finding  some  hesitation,  he  opened  the  loan  for  sub 
scription.  When  the  subscription  failed,  he  was 
at  the  mercy  of  the  capitalists. 

Another  immediate  effect  of  the  dissolution  of 
the  bank  was  the  withdrawal  from  the  country 
of  the  foreign  capital  invested  in  the  bank,  more 
than  seven  millions  of  dollars.  This  amount  was 
remitted,  in  the  twelve  months  preceding  the  war, 
in  specie.  Specie  was  at  that  time  a  product  for 
eign  to  the  United  States,  and  by  no  means  easy 
to  obtain.  Specie,  as  Mr.  Gallatin  profoundly  ob 
served,  does  not  precede,  but  follows  wealth.  The 
want  of  it  nearly  destroyed  Morris's  original  plan 
for  the  Bank  of  North  America,  and  was  only 
made  up  by  the  fortunate  receipt  of  the  French 
remittances.  In  1808  the  specie  in  the  vaults  of 
the  Treasury  reached  fourteen  millions  of  dollars, 
but  during  the  operation  of  the  Embargo  Act,  the 
banks  of  New  England  had  gradually  accumulated 
a  specie  reserve,  and  that  of  Richmond,  Virginia, 
pursued  the  same  policy.  Together  they  held  one 
third  of  the  entire  specie  reserve  of  the  banks. 
The  amount  of  specie  in  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  January  1,  1811,  had  fallen  to  $5,800,000, 
which  soon  found  its  way  abroad. 

The  notes  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States, 
payable  on  demand  in  gold  and  silver  at  the  coun 
ters  of  the  bank,  or  any  of  its  branches,  were,  by 
its  charter,  receivable  in  all  payments  to  the  United 
States;  but  this  quality  was  also  stripped  from 


270  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

them  on  March  19,  1812,  by  a  repeal  of  the  act 
according  it.  To  these  disturbances  of  the  finan 
cial  equilibrium  of  the  country  was  added  the 
necessary  withdrawal  of  fifteen  millions  of  bank 
credit  and  its  transfer  to  other  institutions.  This 
gave  an  extraordinary  impulse  to  the  establish 
ment  of  local  banks,  each  eager  for  a  share  of  the 
profits.  The  capital  of  the  country,  instead  of 
being  concentrated,  was  dissipated.  Between  Jan 
uary  1,  1811,  and  1815,  one  hundred  and  twenty 
new  banks  were  chartered,  and  forty  millions  of 
dollars  were  added  to  the  banking  capital.  To 
realize  profits,  the  issues  of  paper  were  pushed  to 
the  extreme  of  possible  circulation.  Meanwhile 
New  England  kept  aloof  from  the  nation.  Tha 
specie  in  the  vaults  of  the  banks  of  Massachusetts 
rose  from.  $1,706,000  on  June  1, 1811,  to  $7,326,000 
on  June  1,  1814.  This  was  a  consequence  of  the 
New  England  policy  of  opposition.  Mr.  Gallatin 
estimated  that  the  proceeds  of  loans,  exclusively  ot 
treasury  notes  and  temporary  loans,  paid  into  the 
treasury  from  the  commencement  of  the  war  to 
the  end  of  the  year  1814  were  $41,010,000 :  of 
which  sum  the  Eastern  States  lent  $2,900,000  ;  tha 
Middle  States,  $35,790,000  ;  Southwestern  States, 
$2,320,000. 

The  floating  debt  of  the  United  States,  consists 
ing  of  treasury  notes  and  temporary  loans  unpaid, 
amounted,  January  1,  1815,  to  $11,250,000,  ol 
which  nearly  four  fifths  were  loaned  by  the  cities 


SECRETARY  OF   THE  TREASURY.  271 

of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore,  and 
the  District  of  Columbia.  The  suspension  of  the 
banks  was  precipitated  by  the  capture  of  Wash 
ington.  It  began  in  Baltimore,  which  was  threat 
ened  by  the  British,  and  was  at  once  followed 
in  Philadelphia  and  New  York.  Before  the  end 
of  September  all  the  banks  south  and  west  of 
New  England  had  suspended  specie  payment.  In 
his  "Considerations  on  the  Currency,"  Mr. 
tin  expressed  his 

"deliberate  opinion  that  the  suspension  might  have 
been  prevented  at  the  time  when  it  took  place,  had  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States  been  in  existence.  The  ex 
aggerated  increase  of  state  banks,  occasioned  by  the 
dissolution  of  that  institution,  would  not  have  occurred. 
That  bank  would  as  before  have  restrained  them  within 
proper  bounds  and  checked  their  issues,  and  through  the 
means  of  its  offices  it  would  have  been  in  possession  of 
the  earliest  symptoms  of  the  approaching  danger.  It 
would  have  put  the  Treasury  Department  on  its  guard  ; 
both,  acting  in  concert,  would  certainly  have  been  able, 
at  least,  to  retard  the  event ;  and  as  the  treaty  of  peace 
was  ratified  within  less  than  six  months  after  the  sus 
pension  took  place,  that  catastrophe  would  have  been 
avoided." 

But  within   fifteen  months   the   bank   issues   in 
creased  from  forty-five  and  a  half  to  sixty  millions. 


272 


ALBERT  GALLATIN. 


Capital. 

Circulation. 

Specie. 

Banks  of  New  England   . 
Other  Banks  .          ... 

$15,690,000 
66  930  000 

$5,320,000 
44  730  000 

$8,200,000 
8  600  000 

1815.     208  State  Banks    . 
1816.    246  State  Banks   . 

$82,620,000 
89,822,422 

$50,050,000 
68,000,000 

$16,800,000 
19,000,000 

The  depression  of  the  local  currencies  ranged  from 
seven  to  twenty-five  per  cent.  In  New  York  and 
Charleston  it  was  seven  to  ten  per  cent,  below 
the  par  of  coin.  At  Philadelphia  from  seventeen 
to  eighteen  per  cent.  At  Washington  and  Balti 
more  from  twenty  to  twenty-two,  and  at  Pitts 
burgh  and  on  the  frontier,  twenty-five  per  cent, 
below  par.  The  circulating  medium,  or  measure 
of  values,  being  doubled,  the  price  of  commodities 
was  doubled.  The  agiotage,  of  course,  was  the 
profit  of  the  bankers  and  brokers  ;  a  sum  esti 
mated  at  six  millions  of  dollars  a  year,  or  ten  per 
cent,  on  the  exchanges  of  the  country,  which  Mc- 
Duffie,  in  his  celebrated  report,  estimated  at  sixty 
millions  annually. 

In  November  the  Treasury  Department  found 
itself  involved  in  the  common  disaster.  The  re 
fusal  of  the  banks,  in  which  the  public  moneys 
were  deposited,  to  pay  their  notes  or  the  drafts 
upon  them  in  specie  deprived  the  government  of 
its  gold  and  silver ;  and  their  refusal,  likewise,  of 
credit  and  circulation  to  the  issues  of  banks  in 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      273 

other  States  deprived  the  government  also  of  the 
only  means  it  possessed  for  transferring  its  funds 
to  pay  the  dividends  on  the  debt  and  discharge 
the  treasury  notes.  Mr.  Dallas  found  himself 
compelled  to  appeal  to  the  banks  by  circular  to 
subscribe  for  sufficient  treasury  notes  to  secure 
them  such  advances  as  might  be  asked  of  them  for 
the  discharge  of  the  public  obligations. 

"  In  the  latter  end  of  the  year  1814,"  says  Mr. 
Gallatin,  "Mr.  Jefferson  suggested  the  propriety 
of  a  gradual  issue  by  government  of  two  hundred 
millions  of  dollars  in  paper " ;  commenting  upon 
which  Mr.  Gallatin  remarks  that  Mr.  Jefferson, 
from  the  imperfect  data  in  his  possession,  "greatly 
overrated  the  amount  of  paper  currency  which 
could  be  sustained  at  par;  and  he  had,  on  the  other 
hand,  underrated  the  great  expenses  of  the  war ;  " 
but  at  "all  events,"  he  adds,  "  the  issue  of  govern 
ment  paper  ought  to  be  kept  in  reserve  for  ex 
traordinary  circumstances."  But  here  it  may  be 
remarked  that  the  evolution  of  the  systems  of 
American  finance  seems  to  lead  slowly  but  surely 
to  an  entire  divorce  of  banking  from  currency, 
and  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  the  circulating 
medium  of  the  United  States  will  consist  of  gold 
and  silver,  and  of  government  issues  restricted,  ac 
cording  to  the  English  principle,  to  the  minimum 
of  circulation,  and  kept  equivalent  to  coin  by  a 
specie  reserve  in  the  treasury  ;  while  the  banks, 
their  circulation  withdrawn  and  the  institutions 

18 


274,  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

freed  from  any  tax,  will  be  confined  to  their  legit 
imate  business  of  receiving  deposits  and  making 
loans  and  discounts. 

On  October  14,  1814,  Alexander  J.  Dallas,  Mr. 
Gallatin's  old  friend,  who  had  been  appointed 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  on  the  6th  of  the  same 
month,  in  a  report  of  a  plan  to  support  the  public 
credit,  proposed  the  incorporation  of  a  national 
bank.  A  bill  was  passed  by  Congress,  but  returned 
to  it  by  Madison  with  his  veto  on  January  15, 1815. 
In  this  peculiar  document  Madison  "  waived  the 
question  of  the  constitutional  authority  of  the  leg 
islature  to  establish  an  incorporated  bank,  as  being 
precluded,  in  his  judgment,  by  repeated  recogni 
tions,  under  varied  circumstances,  of  the  validity 
of  such  an  institution  in  acts  of  the  legislative, 
executive,  and  judicial  branches  of  the  govern 
ment."  But  he  objected  for  reasons  of  detail. 
Mr.  Dallas  again,  as  a  last  resort,  insisted  on  a 
bank  as  the  only  means  by  which  the  currency  of 
the  country  could  be  restored  to  a  sound  condition. 
In  December,  1815,  Dallas  reported  to  the  com 
mittee  of  the  House  of  Representatives  on  the 
national  currency,  of  which  John  C.  Calhoun  was 
chairman,  a  plan  for  a  national  bank,  and  on 
March  3,  1816,  the  second  Bank  of  the  United 
States  was  chartered  by  Congress.  The  capital 
was  thirty-five  millions,  of  which  the  government 
held  seven  millions  in  seventy  thousand  shares  of 
one  hundred  dollars  each.  Mr.  Madison  approved 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      275 

the  bill.  This  completed  the  abandonment  of 
every  shred  of  principle  claimed  by  the  Republi 
can  party  as  their  rule  of  action.  They  struggled 
through  the  rest  of  their  existence  without  a  polit 
ical  conviction.  The  national  bank,  and  the  system 
of  internal  taxation  which  had  been  scorned  by 
Jefferson  and  Madison  as  unconstitutional,  were 
accepted  actually  under  Madison's  administration. 
Gallatin's  success,  owing  to  the  development  and 
application  of  Hamilton's  plans,  was  a  complete 
vindication  of  the  theory  and  practice  of  the  Fed 
eralists  which  they  abhorred ;  Jefferson's  plan  of 
a  government  issue  of  paper  money  was  a  higher 
flight  into  the  upper  atmosphere  of  implied  powers 
than  Hamilton  ever  dreamed  of. 

The  second  national  bank  of  the  United  States 
was  also  located  at  Philadelphia,  and  chartered  for 
twenty  years.    The  manner  in  which  it  performed 
its  financial  service  is  admirably  set  forth  in  Mr. 
Gallatin's  "  Considerations  on  the  Currency,"  al 
ready  mentioned.    It  acted  as  a  regulator  upon  the    I 
state  banks,  checked  excessive  issues  on  their  part,    J 
and  brought  the    paper  currency  of  the  country 
down  from  sixty-six  to  less  than  forty  millions, 
before  the  year  1820. 

In  April,  1816,  Mr.  Dallas  having  signified  his 
intention  to  resign  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Madison 
wrote  to  Gallatin,  offering  him  his  choice  between 
the  mission  to  France  and  the  Treasury  Depart 
ment.  Mr.  Gallatin's  reply  was  characteristic. 


276  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

I  He  declined  the  Treasury,  but  with  reluctance, 
since  he  thought  he  would  be  more  useful  at  home 
than  abroad,  and  because  he  preferred  to  be  in 
America  rather  than  in  Europe.  One  of  his  pre 
ponderating  reasons  was  that,  although  he  felt 
himself  competent  to  the  higher  duties  of  the  office, 
there  was,  for  what  he  conceived  "  a  proper  man 
agement  of  the  Treasury,  a  necessity  for  a  mass  of 
mechanical  labor  connected  with  details,  forms, 
calculating,  etc.,  which,  having  lost  sight  of  the 
thread  and  routine,  he  could  not  think  of  again 
learning  and  going  through."  He  was  aware  that 
there  was  "  much  confusion  due  to  the  changes  of 
office  and  the  state  of  the  currency,  and  thought 
that  an  active  young  man  could  alone  reinstate 
and  direct  properly  that  department." 

In  June  of  the  same  year,  while  waiting  for  the 
Peacock,  which  was  to  carry  him  across  the  sea, 
Gallatin  wrote  Mi%  Madison  an  urgent  letter,  im 
pressing  upon  him  the  necessity  of  restoring  specie 
payment,  and  his  perfect  conviction  that  nothing 
but  the  will  of  the  government  was  wanted  to  rein- 
\  state  the  country  in  its  moral  character  in  that  re 
spect.  He  dreaded  the  "  paper  taint,'*  which  he 
found  spreading  as  he  journeyed  northward. 

In  January,  1817,  delegates  from  the  banks  of 
York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  Virginia 
in  Philadelphia  and  agreed  to  a  general  and 
simultaneous  resumption  of  specie  payments.    The 
Bank  of  the  United  States  proposed  a  compact 


SECRETARY  OF  THE   TREASURY.  277 

which  was  accepted  by  the  state  banks  and  rati 
fied  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  That  in 
stitution  engaged,  to  a  reasonable  extent,  to  sup 
port  any  bank  menaced.  This  engagement  and 
the  importation  of  seven  millions  of  specie  from 
abroad  by  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  secured 
a  general  restoration  of  specie  payment.  In  1822 
Mr.  Gallatin  was  tendered  and  declined  the  office  ^ 
of  president  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States. 

In  1829  he  prepared  for  Mr.  Ingham,  then  Sec 
retary  of  the  Treasury,  a  masterly  statement  of  *^ 
the  relative  value  of  gold  and  silver.  In  1830 
Mr.  Gallatin  wrote  for  the  "  American  Quarterly 
Review "  his  essay,  "  Considerations  on  the  Cur-  _j_ 
rency  and  Banking  System  of  the  United  States." 
Appearing  at  the  time  when  the  renewal  of  the 
charter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  was  an 
absorbing  question,  this  essay  was  equally  sought 
for  by  both  the  friends  and  opponents  of  the  bank. 
It  is  not  confined,  however,  to  this  subject,  but  cov 
ers  the  entire  field  of  American  finance.  His  treat 
ment  of  the  currency  question  was  novel.  He 
analyzed  the  systems  of  Europe,  compared  them 
with  those  which  prevailed  in  the  United  States, 
and  reached  the  conclusion,  the  general  correct 
ness  of  which  has  been  justified  by  the  experience 
of  all  other  nations,  and  sooner  or  later  will  be 
accepted  by  our  own,  namely,  the  necessity  of  a 
currency  strong  in  the  precious  metals,  and  the  re 
striction  of  paper  money  to  notes  of  one  hundred 


278  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

dollars  to  be  issued  by  the  government.  Thia 
limit  is  higher  than  that  adopted  in  France  and 
England,  but  the  general  principle  that  a  circulat 
ing  medium  is  sound  only  as  it  is  strong  in  gold 
and  silver,  and  that  gold  and  silver  can  only  be 
retained  permanently  by  making  a  place  for  them 
in  the  circulating  medium  by  a  restriction  of  paper 
issues,  will  yet  find  favor  even  in  this  paper-loving 
country. 

In  1832  Mr.  Gallatin  accepted  the  presidency  of 
a  bank  in  New  York,  the  subscription  to  the  stock 
of  which,  $750,000,  was  completed  by  Mr.  John 
Jacob  Astor  on  condition  that  Mr.  Gallatin  should 
manage  its  affairs.  The  direction  of  its  concerns, 
without  absorbing  his  time,  kept  him  in  the  finan 
cial  current.  The  bank  was  called  the  National 
Bank  of  New  York.  But  not  in  this  modest 
post  was  he  to  find  the  financial  path  smooth.  It 
is  true  he  had  lived  in  the  flesh  to  see  the  finan 
cial  millennium.  The  rapid  growth  of  the  country 
and  the  faithful  adherence  of  his  successors  in  the 
Treasury  Department  to  the  funding  principle 
had  at  last  realized  his  dream.  The  national  debt 
was  extinguished.  The  last  dollar  was  paid.  Louis 
McLane,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  on  December 
5, 1832,  in  his  report  on  the  finances,  said  that  the 
dividends  derived  from  the  bank  shares  held  by 
the  United  States  were  more  than  was  required 
to  pay  the  interest,  and  that  the  debt  might  there 
fore  be  considered  as  substantially  extinguished 
after  January  1,  1833. 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      279 

On  December  3,  1833,  Roger  B.  Taney,  Secre* 
tary  of  the  Treasury,  reported  to  Congress  that 
he  had  directed  the  removal  of  the  deposits  of  the 
government  from  the  Bank  of  the  United  States 
and  placed  them  in  banks  of  his  own  selection. 
He  gave  a  number  of  reasons  for  this  extraordinary 
exercise  of  the  power  which  he  obtained  by  his 
appointment  on  September  23, 1833.  He  received 
his  reward  in  June,  1834,  being  then  transferred  by 
President  Jackson  to  the  seat  of  Chief  Justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court.  In  his  annual  report  Taney 
named,  among  his  elaborate  reasons  for  the  re 
moval,  that  the  bank  had  used  its  money  for  elec 
tioneering  purposes,  and  that  he  "had  always  re 
garded  the  result  of  the  last  election  of  President  of 
the  United  States  as  the  declaration  of  a  majority 
of  the  people  that  the  charter  ought  not  to  be  re 
newed."  He  further  expressed  the  opinion  "that 
a  corporation  of  that  description  was  not  necessary 
either  for  the  fiscal  operations  of  the  government 
or  the  general  convenience  of  the  people."  It 
mattered  little  to  him  that  Mr.  Gallatin  had  only 
recently  pointed  out  that  from  the  year  1791  the 
operations  of  the  Treasury  had,  without  interrup-  i 
tion,  been  carried  on  through  the  medium  of 
banks  ;  during  the  years  1811  to  1814,  by  the 
state  banks,  with  a  result  which  no  one  had  as  yet 
forgotten ;  before  and  since  that  brief  interval 
through  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  Enough 
for  Taney,  that  it  was  the  will  of  his  imperious 


280  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

master,  c  the  pugnacious  animal,'  as  Gallatin  aptly 
termed  him. 

In  October,  1834,  Taney's  successor  in  the 
Treasury,  Levi  Woodbury,  gave  notice  that  the 
remaining  debt,  unredeemed  after  January  1, 1835, 
would  cease  to  bear  interest  and  be  promptly  paid 
on  application  to  the  commissioners  of  loans  in 
the  several  states.  On  December  8,  1835,  Mr. 
Woodbury  reported  "  an  unprecedented  spectacle 
presented  to  the  world  of  a  government  virtually 
without  any  debts  and  without  any  direct  tax 
ation."  The  surplus  revenues,  about  thirty-seven 
and  a  half  millions  of  dollars,  had  by  an  act  of  the 
previous  session  been  distributed  among  the  sev 
eral  states.  But  the  Secretary  and  the  country 
soon  found  that  they  were  on  dangerous  ground. 
In  December,  1837,  the  same  Secretary,  alarmed 
at  his  responsibility,  said  to  Congress,  in  warning 
words,  "  We  are  without  any  national  debt  to 
absorb  and  regulate  surpluses,  or  any  adequate 
supply  of  banking  institutions  which  provide  a 
sound  currency  for  general  purposes  by  paying 
specie  on  demand,  or  which  are  in  a  situation  fully 
to  command  confidence  for  keeping,  disbursing, 
and  transferring  the  public  funds  in  a  satisfactory 
manner." 

The  Bank  of  the  United  States,  on  the  expira 
tion  of  its  charter  in  March,  1836,  accepted  a  char 
ter  from  the  State  of  Pennsylvania ;  but,  though 
its  influence  continued  to  be  as  great,  its  direction 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      281 

was  no  longer  the  same.  Abandoning  its  legiti 
mate  business,  it  speculated  in  merchandise,  and 
even  kept  an  agent  in  New  Orleans  to  compete 
with  the  Barings  in  purchases  of  the  cotton  crop 
as  a  basis  for  exchange.  Precisely  as  in  1811, 
after  the  withdrawal  of  the  control  of  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States,  the  state  banks  ran  a  wild  career 
of  speculation.  From  1830  to  1837  three  hundred 
new  banks  sprang  up  with  an  additional  capital  of 
one  hundred  and  forty-five  millions,  doubling,  as 
twenty  years  before,  the  banking  capital  of  the 
country.  This  volume  the  deposits  -of  the  Treas 
ury  continued  to  swell.  Mr.  Woodbury  was  the 
first  to  take  alarm.  In  December,  1836,  he  re 
ported  the  specie  in  the  country  to  have  increased 
from  thirty  millions  in  1833  to  seventy-three  mil 
lions  at  the  date  of  his  report,  and  the  paper 
circulation,  in  the  same  period,  to  have  advanced, 
since  the  removal  of  the  deposits  from  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States,  from  eighty  millions  to  one 
hundred  and  twenty  millions,  or  forty  millions  in 
eighteen  months  ;  and  the  bank  capital,  in  the  same 
period,  to  have  increased  from  two  hundred  to 
three  hundred  millions.  Importation  augmented  ; 
the  balance  of  trade  suddenly  turned  against  the 
United  States  to  the  extent  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  millions,  and  coin  began  to  flow  abroad  to 
liquidate  the  account.  There  was  no  debt  to  at 
tract  foreign  investment  and  arrest  the  export  of 
specie.  Added  to  this  was  the  withdrawal  of  the 


282  ALBERT  GALLAT1N. 

government  deposits  from  the  pet  bank,  which 
compelled  an  immediate  contraction.  The  result 
was  inevitable.  On  May  10, 1837,  the  New  York 
banks  suspended,  Mr.  Gallatin's  institution  being 
of  course  dragged  down  with  the  rest.  It  is  idle 
to  suppose  that  any  single  bank  can  hold  out 
against  a  general  suspension.  It  may  liquidate  or 
become  a  bank  of  deposits,  but  it  cannot  maintain 
its  relations  with  its  sister  institutions  except  on  a 
basis  of  common  accord. 

A  general  suspension  followed.  Mr.  Woodbury 
proved  himself  equal  to  the  emergency,  and  recom 
mended  a  plan  of  "  keeping  the  public  money 
under  new  legislative  provisions  without  using 
banks  at  all  as  fiscal  agents."  This  was  the  begin 
ning  of  the  sub-treasury  system,  a  new  departure 
in  treasury  management,  and  a  further  evolution 
in  American  finance.  It  still  remains,  and  will  no 
doubt  be  permanent.  Its  establishment  was  easy 
because  of  the  absence  of  a  national  debt. 

Mr.  Gallatin  at  once  turned  his  attention  to 
bring  about  first  a  liquidation  and  then  a  resump 
tion.  It  was  a  favorite  maxim  with  him,  that 
J  "  the  agonies  of  resumption  are  far  harder  to  en 
dure  than  those  of  suspension,"  as  it  is  easier  to 
refrain  from  lapse  of  virtue  than  to  restore  moral 
integrity  once  impaired.  But  in  resumption  the 
suffering  falls  where  it  belongs,  on  the  careless, 
the  improvident,  and  the  over-trader. 

On  August  15, 1837,  the  officers  of  the  banks  of 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  283 

New  York  city,  in  a  general  meeting,  appointed  a 
committee  of  three  to  call  a  convention  of  the 
principal  banks  to  agree  upon  a  time  for  a  re 
sumption  of  specie  payments.  This  committee, 
of  which  Mr.  Gallatin  was  chairman,  on  August 
18  addressed  a  circular  to  the  principal  banks  in 
the  United  States,  inviting  the  expression  of  their 
wishes  as  to  the  time  and  place  for  a  convention, 
suggesting  New  York  as  the  place,  and  October, 

1837,  as  the  time.     They  said,  in  addition,  that 
the  banks  of  New  York  city,  in  view  of  the  law 
of  the- state  dissolving  them  as  legal  corporations 
in  case  of  suspension  for  one  year,  must  resume 
at  some  time  between  January  1  and  March  15, 

1838.  The    circular    committed   the    New  York 
banks  to  no  definite  action,  but  expressed  the  opin 
ion  that  the  fall  in  the  rate  of  exchanges  indicated 
an  early  return  of  specie  to  par,  when  resumption 
could   be  effected   without  danger.       The   banks 
of  Philadelphia   held  a   meeting  on  August   29, 
and  adopted  resolutions  declaring  it  inexpedient 
to  appoint  delegates  to  the  proposed  convention. 
Aware  of  the  reasons  for  this  action,  the  chief  of 
which  was  the  extended   and   perhaps   insolvent 
condition   of   the  United   States  Bank    of   Penn 
sylvania,  the   New   York   committee  invited   the 
banks  in  the  several  States  to  appoint  delegates  to 
meet  on  November  27, 1837,  in  New  York.     Dele 
gates  from  banks  of  seventeen  states  and  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia  appeared.     Oil  the  30th  reso- 


284  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

lutions  were  brought  in  recommending  a  general 
resumption  on  July  1,  without  precluding  an  ear 
lier  resumption  on  the  part  of  such  banks  as 
might  find  it  necessary.  The  Pennsylvania  banks 
opposed  this  action  with  resolutions  condemning 
the  idea  of  immediate  resumption  as  impractica 
ble,  and  also,  in  the  absence  of  delegates  from 
the  banks  of  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  and 
Tennessee,  as  unwise.  The  convention  met  again 
on  December  2,  when  an  adjournment  was  carried 
to  April  11,  1838,  when  delegates  from  the  banks 
not  represented  were  invited  to  attend.  Mr.  Gal- 
latin  saw  that  the  combination  of  the  Philadelphia 
and  Boston  banks,  under  the  lead  of  Mr.  Biddle, 
would  certainly  force  a  further  postponement. 
Exchange  on  London,  which  had  been  as  high  as 
121,  the  true  par  being  about  109i,  nominal,  had 
fallen  to  111^,  which,  considering  that  the  city 
bank  paper  was  at  a  discount  of  five  per  cent., 
was  at  the  rate  of  2£  per  cent,  below  specie  par. 
The  exportation  of  specie  had  entirely  ceased. 

On  December  15  Mr.  Gallatin  and  his  commit 
tee  appointed  at  the  general  convention  submitted 
a  report  which  he  had  drafted,  which,  though 
addressed  to  the  New  York  banks,  covered  the 
whole  ground.  Meanwhile  the  highest  authority 
in  Pennsylvania  had  given  it  as  his  opinion  "  that 
the  banks  of  Pennsylvania  were  in  a  much  sounder 
state  than  before  the  suspension,  and  that  the  re 
sumption  of  specie  payments,  so  far  as  it  depends 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.  285 

on  their  situation  and  resources,  may  take  place 
at  any  time." 

On  February  28, 1838,  Mr.  Gallatin's  committee 
made  a  further  report  showing  that  the  liabilities 
of  the  New  York  banks  had  been  reduced  more 
than  twelve  millions  and  a  half,  or  fifty  per  cent, 
and  asserting  that  with  the  support  of  the  com 
munity  and  the  state  authorities  they  could  resume 
on  an  equal  footing  on  May  10.  This  declaration 
was  welcomed  with  great  satisfaction  by  a  general 
meeting  of  the  citizens  of  New  York.  On  April 
11  the  general  convention  again  met  in  New  York. 
The  Philadelphia  banks  declined  to  attend.  A 
letter  from  Mr.  Woodbury  promised  the  support 
of  the  Treasury  Department.  A  committee  of  one 
from  each  state  was  appointed,  which  recommended 
the  first  Monday  in  October  as  the  earliest  day  for 
a  general  resumption.  The  convention  could  not, 
however,  be  brought  to  fix  upon  so  early  a  day,  but 
finally  fixed  upon  January,  1,  1839,  and  adjourned. 
The  New  York  banks  would  have  accepted  July  1, 
1838,  but  this  being  refused  they  resumed  alone 
on  May  10,  and  the  force  of  public  opinion  com 
pelled  resumption  by  nearly  all  the  banks  of  the 
country  on  July  1. 

The  terrible  contraction  was  fatal  to  the  United 
States  Bank  of  Pennsylvania,  which  after  a  vain 
struggle  closed  its  doors  in  October,  1839,  and 
carried  with  it  the  entire  banking  system  of  the 
Southern  and  Southwestern  States.  Although  in 


286  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

no  way  similar  to  the  semi-governmental  institu 
tions  which  preceded  it,  yet,  from  its  similarity  of 
name  and  identity  of  location,  its  disastrous  fail 
ure  added  to  the  blind  popular  distrust  of  its  prede 
cessors,  which  narrow-minded  politicians  had  fos 
tered  for  their  own  selfish  purpqses.  Fortunately 
the  sub-treasury  plan  of  Mr.  Woodbury  supplied 
the  need  of  a  safe  place  of  deposit  which,  since  the 
refusal  of  Congress  to  renew  the  charter  of  the  old 
bank,  had  been  sorely  felt. 

In  1838,  on  the  foundation  of  the  Bank  of  Com 
merce  under  the  free  banking  law  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  the  presidency  of  it  was  first  ten 
dered  to  Mr.  Gallatin.  The  directors  of  this  bank 
were  among  the  most  distinguished  financiers  of 
the  city,  and  its  object  was  to  provide  a  conser 
vative  institution  with  sufficient  power  and  capital 
to  act  as  a  regulator  upon  the  New  York  banks. 
Profit  to  the  stockholders  was  secondary  to  the 
reserve  power  for  general  advantage. 

In  June,  1839,  Mr.  Gallatin  resigned  his  post 
as  president  of  the  National  Bank  of  New  York. 
In  1841  he  published  a  financial  essay,  which 
he  entitled  "  Suggestions  on  the  Banks  and  Cur- 
rency  of  the  United  States,"  a  paper  full  of  infor 
mation,  but  from  the  nature  of  the  subject  not  to 
be  compared  in  general  interest  with  his  earlier 
paper,  which  is  as  fresh  to-day  as  when  it  was 
written.  Mr.  Gallatin  condemned  paper  currency 
as  an  artificial  stimulus,  and  the  ultimate  object 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY.      287 

of  his  essays  was  to  annihilate  what  he  termed  the 
"  dangerous  instrument."  He  admitted  its  utility 
and  convenience,  when  used  with  great  sobriety, 
but  he  deprecated  its  tendency  to  degenerate  into 
a  depreciated  and  irredeemable  currency.  This 
tendency  the  present  national  banking  law  arrests, 
but  the  law  rather  invites  than  prohibits  the  stim 
ulus  of  increased  issues.  The  last  word  has  not 
yet  been  said  on  national  currency,  which,  though 
the  basis  of  all  commercial  transactions,  has  neces 
sarily  no  other  relation  to  banks  than  that  which 
it  holds  to  any  individual  in  the  community. 

Economic  questions  have  interested  the  highest 
order  of  mind  on  the  two  continents.  Sismondi 
published  a  paper  on  commercial  wealth  in  1803, 
and  in  1810  a  memoir  on  paper  money,  which  he 
prepared  to  show  how  it  might  be  suppressed  in 
the  Austrian  dominions ;  Humboldt  made  a  special 
study  of  the  sources  and  quantity  of  the  precious 
metals  in  the  world,  in  which  Mr.  Gallatin  aided 
him  by  investigation  in  America.  Michel  Cheva 
lier  was  interested  in  the  same  subjects ;  surviving 
his  two  masters  in  the  art  and  witnessing  the  mar 
vellous  effects  of  the  additions  made  by  America 
to  the  store  of  precious  metals,  he  continued  the 
study  in  the  spirit  of  his  predecessors,  and  favored 
the  world  with  instructive  papers.  Mr.  Gallatin's 
contributions  to  this  science  are  remarkable  for 
minute  research  and  careful  deductions. 

In  1843  President  Tyler  tendered  the  Treasury 


288  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

portfolio  to  Mr.  Gallatin.  The  venerable  financier 
looked  upon  the  offer  as  an  act  of  folly  to  which  a 
serious  answer  seemed  hardly  necessary.  Yet  as 
silence  might  be  misconstrued,  he  replied  that  he 
wanted  no  office,  and  to  accept  at  his  age  that  of 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  would  "be  an  act  of 
insanity."  He  was  then  in  his  eighty-third  year. 
Thus,  by  an  ill-considered  caprice  of  Mr.  Tyler, 
Mr.  Gallatin's  connection  with  the  finances  of  the 
United  States  was  completed  in  the  manner  with 
which  it  commenced,  the  tender  of  the  Treasury 
Department. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

IN  THE   CABINET. 

THE  general  principles  which  Mr.  Jefferson  pro 
posed  to  apply  in  his  conduct  of  the  government 
were  not  principles  of  organization  but  of  admin 
istration.  The  establishments  devised  by  Hamil 
ton,  in  accordance  with  or  in  development  of 
the  provisions  of  the  Constitution,  were  organic. 
The  new  policy  was  essentially  restrictive  and 
economic.  The  military  and  naval  establishments 
were  to  be  kept  at  their  lowest  possible  limit. 
The  Treasury  Department  was  to  be  conducted 
on  strictly  business  principles.  The  debt  was  to 
be  reduced  and  finally  paid  by  a  fixed  annual  ap 
propriation.  The  revenue  was  to  be  raised  by  im 
posts  on  importation  and  tonnage,  and  by  direct 
taxation,  if  necessary.  The  public  land  system 
was  to  be  developed.  A  scheme  of  internal  im 
provements  by  land  and  water  highways  was  to 
be  devised.  All  these  purposes  except  the  last 
had  been  declared  by  the  opposition  during  the 
last  part  of  Washington's  second  term  and  during 
Adams's  presidency,  and  had  been  lucidly  ex 
pounded  by  Madison,  Gallatin,  Giles,  Nicholas, 
and  others  of  the  Republican  leaders.  On  all 

19 


290  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

these  subjects  Mr.  Gallatin  was  in  accord  with  his 
chief.  Only  upon  the  bank  question  were  they  at 
issue.  Mr.  Jefferson  detested  or  feared  the  aris 
tocracy  of  money,  while  Gallatin,  with  a  clearer 
insight  into  commercial  and  financial  questions, 
recognized  that  in  a  young  country  where  capital 
was  limited,  and  specie  in  still  greater  dispropor 
tion  to  the  increasing  demands  of  trade,  a  well- 
ordered,  well-managed  money  institution  was  an 
enormous  advantage,  if  not  an  imperative  neces 
sity  to  the  government  and  the  people. 

Peace  was  necessary  to  the  success  of  this  gen 
eral  policy  of  internal  progress,  but  peace  was  not 
to  be  had  for  the  asking.  It  was  not  till  half  a 
century  later  that  the  power  of  the  western  con 
tinent  as  a  food-producing  country  was  fully  felt 
by  Europe,  and  peace  with  the  United  States 
became  almost  a  condition  of  existence  to  millions 
in  the  Old  World,  while  this  country  became  in 
dependent,  in  fact  as  in  name,  to  the  fullest  mean 
ing  of  the  word.  Peace  was  not  menaced  during 
Jefferson's  first  administration,  for  the  Federalists 
had  left  no  legacy  of  diplomatic  discord  to  em 
barrass  their  successors.  The  divisions  of  opinion 
were  on  home  affairs.  The  Republican  party  was 
the  first  opposition  which  had  reached  power 
since  the  formation  of  the  government.  The  Fed 
eralists  had  not  hesitated  to  confine  the  patronage 
of  the  Executive  to  men  of  their  own  way  of  think 
ing.  The  Republicans  had  attacked  that  principle. 


IN  THE  CABINET.  291 

There  were  men  even  in  the  ranks  of  Jefferson's 
administration  who  scouted  the  idea  that  the  Pres 
ident  of  the  United  States  could  become  "  the 
President  of  a  party."  But  practice  and  principle 
are  not  always  in  accord,  even  in  administrations 
of  sentimental  purity,  and  the  pressure  for  office 
was  as  great  in  1800  as  it  has  ever  since  been  on 
the  arrival  of  a  new  party  to  power.  Beyond  all 
other  departments  of  government,  the  Treasury  de 
pends  for  its  proper  service  upon  business  capacity 
and  a  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  accounting 
and  office  routine.  Mr.  Gallatin  was  well  aware  of 
the  difficulties  his  predecessors  had  encountered  in 
finding  and  retaining  competent  examining  and 
auditing  clerks.  As  there  was  no  reason  to  sup 
pose  that  all  this  talent  was  to  be  found  in  the 
ranks  of  the  Republican  party,  and  his  common 
sense  pointed  out  the  folly  of  limiting  the  market 
of  supply,  he  early  (July  25,  1801)  prepared  a 
circular  to  collectors,  in  which  he  informed  them 
"  that  the  door  of  office  was  no  longer  to  be  shut 
against  any  man  because  of  his  political  opinions, 
but  that  integrity  and  capacity  suitable  to  the  sta 
tion  were  to  be  the  only  qualifications  required  ; 
and  further,  the  President,  considering  freedom  of 
opinion  or  freedom  of  suffrage  at  public  elections 
imprescriptible  rights  of  citizens,  would  regard  any 
exercise  of  official  influence  to  sustain  or  control 
the  same  rights  in  others  as  injurious  to  the  public 
administration  and  practically  destructive  of  the 


292  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

fundamental  principles  of  a  republican  Constitu 
tion."  But  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Madison  op 
posed  this  simple  declaration  of  a  principle  which 
has  since  been  the  base  of  every  attempt  at  reform 
in  the  civil  service.  Mr.  Jefferson  answered  that 
after  one  half  of  the  subordinates  were  exchanged, 
talents  and  worth  might  alone  be  inquired  into  in 
the  case  of  new  vacancies.  This  was  a  miserable 
shuffling  policy  which  defeated  itself.  For  a  Fed 
eralist  to  retain  office  when  such  a  discrimination 
was  applied  was  of  itself  a  degradation.  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  here  threw  away  and  forever  lost  the  power 
to  establish  the  true  system,  and  fixed  the  curse 
of  patronage  upon  American  administration.  The 
true  principle  may  be  stated  in  the  form  of  an 
axiom.  Administrations  should  rely  for  continua 
tion  upon  measures,  not  on  patronage.  Gallatin 
yielded  with  reluctance  to  the  spirit  of  persecution 
which  he  did  not  hesitate  to  say  disgraced  the  Re 
publican  cause,  and  sank  them  to  a  level  with 
their  predecessors.  Notwithstanding  his  aversion, 
he  was  compelled  to  follow  the  policy  of  the  cab 
inet.  Its  first  result  was  to  divide  the  Republican 
party,  and  to  alienate  Burr,  whose  recommenda 
tion  of  Matthew  L.  Davis  for  the  naval  office  at 
New  York  was  disregarded.  Had  the  new  admin 
istration  declined  to  make  removals  except  for 
cause,  such  a  dispute  would  have  been  avoided. 
As  it  was,  the  friends  of  Burr  considered  the  re 
fusal  as  a  declaration  of  war.  Appointments  be- 


IN  THE  CABINET.  293 

came  immediately  a  part  of  the  machinery  of  Re 
publican  administration,  as  it  had  been  part  of 
that  of  their  predecessors,  and  each  was  carefully 
weighed  and  considered  in  its  reference  to  party 
quite  as  much  as  to  public  service. 

Already  looking  forward  to  the  next  presiden 
tial  election,  Gallatin  was  anxious  for  an  agree 
ment  upon  Jefferson's  successor,  and  even  before 
the  meeting  of  the  first  Congress  of  his  term  he 
advised  the  President  on  this  point,  and  he  also 
proposed  the  division  of  every  State  into  election 
districts  by  a  general  constitutional  provision. 

Jefferson  submitted  the  draft  of  his  annual 
messages  to  the  head  of  each  department,  and  in 
vited  their  comments.  Gallatin  was  minute  in 
his  observations,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  the 
peculiar  precision  and  caution  of  his  character  in 
the  nice  criticisms  of  language  and  style,  some 
times  declaratory,  sometimes  non-committal,  but 
always  and  obviously  reasonable,  and  often  pre 
senting  a  brief  argument  for  the  change  proposed. 
In  these  days  of  woman's  rights  it  is  curious  to 
read  "  Th.  J.  to  Mr.  Gallatin.  The  appointment 
of  a  woman  to  office  is  an  innovation  for  which 
the  public  is  not  prepared,  nor  am  I." 

Gallatin  suggested  a  weekly  general  conference 
of  the  President  and  the  Secretaries  at  what  is 
now  styled  a  cabinet  meeting,  and  private  con 
ferences  of  the  President  with  each  of  the  Secre 
taries  once  or  twice  a  week  on  certain  days  and 


294  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

at  fixed  hours.  The  business  to  come  before  the 
House  was  also  to  be  considered,  and  the  policy  to 
be  pursued  determined  upon.  Unfortunately  in 
this  case  again  Jeffersonian  theory  did  not  accord 
with  Jeffersonian  practice.  Even  erratic  Ran 
dolph  complained  of  the  want  of  system  at  these 
cabinet  meetings,  where  each  was  at  liberty  to  do 
and  say  as  he  chose ;  a  severe  trial,  this,  to  Galla- 
tin.  In  1845  Mr.  Gallatin  wrote  to  Edward  Coles 
that  it  was  "  quite  unusual  to  submit  to  the  cabinet 
the  manner  in  which  the  land  or  naval  forces  au 
thorized  by  Congress,  and  for  which  appropria 
tions  had  been  made,  should  be  employed,"  and 
added  that  on  no  occasion,  in  or  out  of  cabinet, 
was  he  ever  consulted  on  those  subjects  prior  to 
the  year  1812. 

In  the  difficulty  which  arose  with  the  Barbary 
powers  Mr.  Gallatin  earnestly  urged  the  payment 
of  an  annuity  to  Tripoli,  if  necessary  for  peace. 
He  considered  it  a  mere  matter  of  calculation 
whether  the  purchase  of  peace  was  not  cheaper 
than  the  expense  of  a  war.  This  policy  was  to  be 
continued  for  eight  years,  at  the  end  of  which  he 
hoped  that  a  different  tone  might  be  assumed. 
In  a  note  on  the  message  of  1802,  Gallatin  ex 
pressed  the  hope  to  Jefferson  that  his  adminis 
tration  would  "  afford  but  few  materials  for  his 
torians."  He  would  never  sacrifice  permanent 
prosperity  to  temporary  glitter. 

Mr.  Gallatin's  counsel  was  sought,  and  his  opin- 


IN  THE  CABINET.  295 

ion  deferred  to,  on  subjects  which  did  not  fall 
directly  within  the  scope  of  administration.  Even 
on  questions  of  fundamental  constitutional  law  his 
judgment  was  not  inferior  to  that  of  Madison 
himself.  In  one  notable  instance  he  differed  from 
Mr.  Lincoln,  the  Attorney-General,  whom  he  held 
in  high  esteem  as  a  good  lawyer,  a  fine  scholar, 
"  a  man  of  great  discretion  and  sound  judgment." 
This  was  in  1803,  when  the  acquisition  of  East 
Louisiana  and  West  Florida  was  a  cabinet  ques 
tion.  Mr.  Lincoln  considered  that  there  was  a 
difference  between  a  power  to  acquire  territory 
for  the  United  States  and  the  power  to  extend  by 
treaty  the  territory  of  the  United  States,  and  held 
that  the  first  was  unconstitutional.  Mr.  Gallatin 
held  that  the  United  States  as  a  nation  have  an 
inherent  right  to  acquire  territory,  and  that,  when 
acquisition  is  by  treaty,  the  same  constituted  au 
thorities  in  whom  the  treaty  power  is  vested  have 
a  constitutional  right  to  sanction  the  acquisition, 
and  that  when  the  territory  has  been  acquired 
Congress  has  the  power  either  of  admitting  into 
the  Union  as  a  new  State  or  of  annexing  to  a 
State,  with  the  consent  of  that  State,  or  of  mak 
ing  regulations  for  the  government  of  the  territory. 
Mr.  Jefferson  concurred  in  this  opinion,  while  at 
the  same  time  he  thought  it  safer  not  to  permit 
the  enlargement  of  the  Union  except  by  amend 
ment  of  the  Constitution.  Mr.  Gallatin's  view  was 
practically  applied  in  the  cases  named,  and  later 


296  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

in  the  annexation  of  Texas,  although  he  disap 
proved  of  the  latter  as  contrary  to  good  faith  and 
the  law  of  nations.  He  advised  Jefferson,  also,  not 
to  lay  the  treaty  by  which  Louisiana  was  acquired 
before  the  House  until  after  its  ratification  by  the 
Senate,  taking  the  ground  that  until  then  it  was 
not  a  treaty,  and  urging  that  great  care  should  be 
taken  to  do  nothing  which  might  be  represented 
as  containing  any  idea  of  encroachment  on  the 
rights  of  the  Senate.  He  personally  interested 
himself  in  the  arrangements  for  taking  possession 
of  New  Orleans,  and,  considering  the  expense  as 
trifling  compared  with  the  object,  urged  the  dis 
patch  of  an  imposing  force  of  not  less  than  fifteen 
thousand  men,  which  would  add  to  the  opinion 
entertained  abroad  of  our  power,  resources,  and 
energy ;  five  thousand  of  these  to  be  active  troops ; 
ten  thousand  an  enrolled  reserve.  The  acquisition 
of  Louisiana  was  the  grand  popular  feature  of  the 
foreign  policy  of  the  first  term  of  Jefferson's  ad 
ministration.  The  internal  management  left  much 
to  be  desired. 

While  his  general  views  were  exalted,  and  his 
principles  would  stand  the  nicest  examination  in 
their  application,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  not  fortunate 
in  his  choico  of  methods  or  men.  It  is  not  enough 
for  an  administration  to  be  pure  ;  it  should  be 
above  suspicion.  This  his  was  not.  Time  has 
not  washed  out  the  stain  of  his  intimacy  with 
William  Duane,  the  editor  of  the  infamous  "  Au- 


IN  THE  CABINET.  297 

rora."  Citizen  Duane,  as  he  styled  himself  in  the 
first  days  of  the  administration,  quarrelled  with 
Gallatin  because  he  would  not  apply  the  official 
guillotine,  and  thereafter  pursued  him  with  un 
compromising  hostility.  Of  favoritism  in  appoint 
ments  Mr.  Gallatin  could  not  be  accused.  During 
his  twelve  years  in  the  Treasury  he  procured 
places  for  but  two  friends ;  one  was  given  an  ob 
scure  clerkship  in  the  department;  the  other, 
John  Badollet,  was  made  register  in  the  land 
office  at  Vincennes,  against  whom  Gallatin  said  in 
the  application  for  appointment  which  he  reluct 
antly  made,  there  was  but  one  objection,  "  that  of 
being  his  personal  and  college  friend." 

The  dispositions  for  the  sale  of  lands  in  the 
western  territory,  the  extinguishment  of  titles,  and 
the  surveys  fell  under  Mr.  Gallatin 's  general  su 
pervision,  and  were  the  objects  of  his  particular 
care.  So  also  was  the  establishment  of  the  au 
thority  of  the  United  States  in  the  Louisiana  ter 
ritory.  In  the  course  of  these  arrangements  he 
was  brought  into  contact  with  Mr.  Pierre  Chateau 
of  St.  Louis,  who  controlled  the  Indian  trade  of  a 
vast  territory.  The  foundation  of  an  intimate  ac 
quaintance  was  then  laid.  The  influence  of  this 
remarkable  man  over  the  western  Indians  and 
the  extent  of  his  trading  operations  with  them  was 
great,  and  has  never  since  been  equalled.  About 
this  period  Mr.  John  Jacob  Astor  informed  the 
government  that  he  had  an  opportunity,  of  which 


298  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

he  intended  to  take  advantage,  to  purchase  one 
half  of  the  interest  of  the  Canadian  Fur  Company, 
which,  notwithstanding  the  treaty  of  1794,  en 
grossed  the  trade  by  way  of  Michilimackinac  with 
our  own  Indians.  Before  that  period  this  lucra 
tive  traffic  had  been  exclusively  in  British  hands, 
and  the  hostility  of  the  Indian  tribes  rendered  any 
interference  in  it  by  Americans  dangerous  to  life 
and  property,  and  their  participation  since  had 
been  merely  nominal.  Jefferson's  cabinet  received 
the  proposal  with  satisfaction,  but,  in  their  strict 
interpretation  of  the  Constitution,  could  find  no 
way  of  giving  any  aid  to  the  scheme  beyond  the 
official  promise  of  protection,  which  it  fell  to  Mr. 
Gallatin  to  draft.  Mr.  Jefferson  wrote  to  Mr. 
Astor  a  letter  to  the  same  effect.  Mr.  Astor, 
however,  was  deterred  from  his  enterprise,  and, 
under  the  charter  of  the  American  Fur  Company 
granted  by  the  State  of  New  York,  extended  his 
project  to  the  Indians  west  of  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains,  and  made  of  it  an  immense  business,  em 
ploying  several  vessels  at  the  mouth  of  the  Co 
lumbia  River  and  a  large  land  party  beyond  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  He  finally  founded  the  estab 
lishment  of  Astoria.  This  settlement  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  British  during  the  war  of  1812.  Mr. 
Astor  sought  to  persuade  the  American  govern 
ment  to  permit  him  to  renew  the  establishment 
at  its  close,  only  asking  a  flag  and  a  lieutenant's 
command,  but  Mr.  Madison  would  not  commit 
himself  to  the  plan. 


JN  THE  CABINET. 


Among  Mr.  Jefferson's  pet  schemes  was  that  of 
a  substitution  of  gun-boats  for  fortifications,  and 
for  supporting  the  authority  of  the  laws  within 
harbors.  The  mind  of  Mr.  Jefferson  had  no  doubt 
been  favorably  disposed  to  this  mode  of  offensive 
defence  by  the  experience  of  Lafayette  at  An 
napolis,  in  his  southern  expedition  in  the  spring 
of  1781,  when  his  entire  flotilla,  ammunition  of 
war,  and  even  the  city  of  Annapolis,  were  saved 
from  destruction  by  an  improvised  gun-boat, 
which,  armed  with  mortars  and  hot  shot,  drove 
the  British  blockading  vessels  out  of  the  harbor. 
Jefferson  first  suggested  the  scheme  in  his  annual 
message  of  1804,  and  Gallatin  did  not  interfere  ; 
but  when,  in  1807,  the  President  insisted,  in  a 
special  message,  on  the  building  of  two  hundred 
vessels  of  this  class,  Mr.  Gallatin  objected,  be 
cause  of  the  expense  in  construction  and  main 
tenance,  and  secondly, ,  of  their  infallible  decay. 
Mr.  Jefferson  persisted,  and  Mr.  Gallatin's  judg 
ment  was  vindicated  by  the  result.  Two  years 
later,  of  one  hundred  and  seventy-six  gun-boats 
constructed,  only  twenty-four  were  in  actual  ser 
vice.  In  his  letter  of  criticism,  Mr.  Gallatin  gave 
as  his  opinion,  that  "  it  would  be  an  economical 
measure  for  every  naval  nation  to  burn  their  navy 
at  the  end  of  a  war  and  to  build  a  new  one  when 
again  at  war,  if  it  was  not  that  time  was  neces 
sary  to  build  ships  of  war."  The  principle  was 
the  same  as  to  gun-boats,  and  the  objection  of 
time  necessary  for  building  did  not  exist. 


ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

This  year  he  also  laid  before  the  President  a 
memorandum  of  preparatory  measures  for  defence 
against  Great  Britain,  from  whom  an  attack  was 
expected  by  land  and  sea,  and  a  second  plan  for  of 
fensive  operations  on  the  northern  frontier,  which 
is  complete  in  its  geographical  and  topographical 
information,  and  its  estimate  of  resources  in  men, 
material,  and  money.  At  the  same  time  he  urged 
upon  Mr.  Jefferson  to  moderate  the  tone  of  his 
message,  so  as  not  to  widen  the  breach  by  hurting 
the  pride  of  Great  Britain. 

In  connection  with  the  land  system,  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  favored,  and  Mr.  Gallatin  devised,  an  exten 
sive  plan  of  internal  improvements.  The  route  of 
the  Cumberland  road  from  the  Potomac  to  the 
Ohio  was  reported  to  Congress  in  1807  ;  a  coast 
survey  was  ordered  in  the  same  year.  The  first 
superintendent  was  Hassler,  a  Swiss,  whom  Mr. 
Gallatin  brought  to  the  notice  of  Mr.  Jefferson. 
In  1808  a  general  plan  of  improvement  was  sub 
mitted  to  the  Senate.  This  included  canals  paral 
lel  with  the  sea-coast,  making  a  continuous  line  of 
inland  navigation  from  the  Hudson  to  Cape  Fear ; 
a  great  turnpike  from  Maine  to  Georgia ;  the  im 
provement  of  the  Susquehanna,  Potomac,  James, 
and  Santee  rivers  to  serve  the  slope  from  the  Al- 
leghanies  to  the  Atlantic  ;  of  the  Alleghany,  Mo- 
nongahela,  and  Kanawha,  to  serve  the  country 
westward  to  the  Mississippi,  the  head-waters  of 
these  rivers  to  be  connected  by  four  roads  across 


IN  THE  CABINET.  301 

the  Appalachian  range  ;  a  canal  at  the  falls  of  the 
Ohio ;  a  connection  of  the  Hudson  with  Lake 
Champlain,  and  of  the  same  river  with  Lake 
Ontario  at  Oswego ;  and  a  canal  around  Niagara 
Falls.  The  entire  expense  he  estimated  at 
$20,000,000,  to  be  met  by  an  appropriation  of 
$2,000,000  a  year  for  ten  years ;  the  stock  created 
for  turnpikes  and  canals  to  be  a  permanent  fund 
for  repairs  and  improvements.  • 

A  national  university  for  education  in  the 
higher  sciences  was  also  recommended  by  Jeffer 
son  in  his  message  of  1806,  but  Mr.  Gallatin  had 
little  faith  in  the  popularity  of  this  scheme.  After 
the  convulsion  of  1794  in  Geneva,  Gallatin's  old 
college  mate,  D'Yvernois,  conceived  the  plan  of 
transporting  the  entire  University  of  Geneva  to 
the  United  States,  and  wrote  on  the  subject  to 
Jefferson  and  Adams  ;  but  his  idea  was  based  on 
the  supposition  that  fifteen  thousand  dollars1  in 
come  could  be  had  from  the  United  States  in  sup 
port  of  the  institution,  which  was,  of  course,  at 
at  the  time  impracticable.  Jefferson  believed  that 
these  plans  of  national  improvement  could  be  car 
ried  into  effect  only  by  an  amendment  to  the  Con 
stitution  ;  but  Mr.  Gallatin,  as  in  the  bank  ques 
tion,  was  disturbed  by  no  such  scruples,  and  he 
recommended  Mr.  Jefferson  to  strike  from  his 
message  the  words  "general  welfare,"  as  ques 
tionable  in  their  nature,  and  because  the  proposi 
tion  seemed  to  acknowledge  that  the  words  are 
susceptible  of  a  very  dangerous  meaning. 


302  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

To  a  permanent  embargo  act  Mr.  Gallatin  was 
from  the  beginning  opposed.  He  recognized  the 
mischief  of  government  prohibitions,  and  thought 
that  statesmen  might  well  hesitate  before  they 
took  the  hazard  of  regulating  the  concerns  of  in 
dividuals.  The  sequel  proved  the  correctness  of 
this  judgment.  But  Mr.  Jefferson  could  not  bring 
his  mind  to  any  more  decisive  measure,  indeed,  it 
may  justly  be  said,  to  any  measure  whatever. 
Taking  advantage  of  Mr.  Madison's  election  to 
the  presidency,  he  simply  withdrew  from  the  tri 
umvirate,  and,  passing  over  the  subject  in  silence 
in  his  last  message,  he  ignominiously  left  to  Mr. 
Madison  and  Mr.  Gallatin  the  entire  responsibility 
which  the  threatening  state  of  the  foreign  rela 
tions  of  the  country  imposed  on  the  Republican 
party. 

The  question  was  now  between  the  enforcement 
of  the  Embargo  Act  and  war.  To  take  off  the  em 
bargo  seemed  a  declaration  of  weakness.  To  add 
to  it  a  non-importation  clause  was  the  only  alter 
native.  In  November,  1808,  Mr.  Gallatin  prepared 
for  George  W.  Campbell,  chairman  of  the  Com 
mittee  on  Foreign  Relations  of  the  House,  the 
declaration  known  as  Campbell's  report,  which 
recited,  in  clear  compact  form,  the  injuries  done 
to  the  United  States  by  Great  Britain,  and  closed 
with  resolutions  to  the  effect  that  the  United 
States  could  not  submit  to  the  edicts  of  Great 
Britain  and  France,  and  with  a  recommendation 


IN  THE  CABINET.  303 

of  non-intercourse  and  for  placing  of  the  country 
in  a  state  of  defence.  After  long  debate  the  reso 
lutions  were  adopted  by  large  majorities,  and  the 
policy  of  resistance  was  finally  determined  upon 
—  resistance,  not  war.  Thus  the  United  States 
resorted,  as  the  colonies  had  resorted  in  1774,  to 
a  policy  of  non-importation.  But  the  condition 
of  the  States  was  not  that  of  the  colonies.  Then 
all  the  colonies  were  commercial,  and  the  entire 
population  was  on  the  seaboard;  the  prohibition 
fell  with  equal  weight  upon  all.  Now  there  were 
large  interior  communities  whom  restrictions  upon 
commerce  would  rather  benefit  than  injure.  Yet 
neither  the  Sons  of  Liberty  nor  the  non-importa 
tion  associations  had  been  able  to  enforce  their 
voluntary  agreements  either  before  or  after  the 
Congress  of  1774.  If  this  were  to  be  the  mode 
of  resistance,  stringent  measures  must  be  adopted 
to  make  it  effective.  Mr.  Gallatin  accordingly 
called  upon  Congress  for  the  necessary  powers. 
They  at  once  responded  with  the  Enforcement 
Act,  which  Mr.  Gallatin  proceeded  to  apply  with 
characteristic  administrative  vigor,  and  summoned 
Jefferson  to  authorize  the  collectors  of  revenue  to 
call  the  military  force  of  the  United  States  to  sup 
port  them  in  the  exercise  of  their  restrictive  au 
thority.  There  was  to  be  no  evasion  under  the 
systems  which  Hamilton  devised  and  Gallatin 
knew  so  well  how  to  administer. 

His  annual  report  made  to  Congress  on  Decem- 


304  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

ber  10  had  clearly  set  forth  the  situation,  and, 
without  recommending  war,  had  pointed  out  how 
it  might  be  carried  on.  Macon  wrote  of  him  on 
December  4  to  their  mutual  friend,  Joseph  H. 
Nicholson,  "  Gallatin  is  decidedly  for  war."  After 
his  report  was  sent  in  the  situation  became  still  more 
perplexing.  Rumors  came  of  an  intention  to  call 
a  convention  of  the  five  New  England  States,  with 
New  York,  if  possible,  to  take  ground  against  the 
embargo.  As  these  indications  of  dissatisfaction 
became  manifest,  and  the  contingency  of  the  em 
ployment  of  force  at  home  presented  itself,  Galla 
tin  made  a  careful  balance  of  the  advantages  and 
inconveniences  of  embargo,  non-intercourse,  and 
letters  of  marque.  This  paper,  dated  February, 
1809,  and  entitled,  "  Notes  on  the  Political  Situ 
ation,"  no  doubt  served  as  a  brief  for  consultation 
with  Madison  upon  his  inaugural  message,  it  be 
ing  then  understood  that  Gallatin  was  to  be  Sec 
retary  of  State.  As  he  states  one  of  the  advan 
tages  of  letters  of  marque  to  be  "  a  greater  chance 
of  unity  at  home,"  this  measure  he  probably  pre 
ferred.  The  Senate  had  already,  on  January  4, 
passed  a  bill  ordering  out  the  entire  naval  force 
of  the  country,  and  on  the  10th  the  House  adopted 
the  same  bill  by  a  vote  of  64  to  59.  Mr.  Gallatin 
opposed  this  action  strenuously.  On  February  2 
the  House  voted  by  a  large  majority  to  remove  the 
embargo  on  March  4.  Non-intercourse  with  Great 
Britain  and  France  and  trade  everywhere  else  were 


IN  THE  CABINET.  305 

now  the  conditions.  This  significant  expression 
of  the  feeling  of  Congress  no  doubt  determined  Mr. 
Gallatin  to  suggest  letters  of  marque.  Whether 
he  pressed  them  upon  Mr.  Madison  or  not  is  un 
certain.  Meanwhile  Mr.  Gallatin  suffered  the 
odium  of  opposition  to  the  will  of  Congress,  and 
Mr.  Madison's  power  was  broken  before  he  took 
his  seat.  A  few  Republican  senators  inaugurated 
an  opposition  to  their  chief  after  the  fashion  of 
modern  days,  and  Mr.  Madison  was  given  to  un 
derstand  that  Mr.  Gallatin  would  not  be  confirmed 
if  nominated  as  secretary  of  state.  Mr.  Madison 
yielded  to  this  dictation,  and  from  that  day  for 
ward  was,  as  he  deserved  to  be,  perplexed  and 
harassed  by  a  petty  oligarchy.  Mr.  John  Quincy 
Adams,  in  a  note  on  this  affair,  says  that,  "  had 
Mr.  Gallatin  been  appointed  secretary  of  state,  it 
is  highly  probable  war  with  Great  Britain  would 
not  have  taken  place."  But  it  is  improbable  that 
any  step  in  foreign  intercourse  was  taken  without 
Mr.  Gallatin's  knowledge  and  approbation.  Such 
are  the  traditions  of  the  triumvirate. 

The  first  term  of  Madison's  administration  was 
not  eventful.  There  was  discord  in  the  cabinet. 
In  the  Senate  the  "  invisibles,"  as  the  faction 
which  supported  Robert  Smith,  the  Secretary  of 
State,  was  aptly  termed,  rejected  Madison's  nomi 
nations  and  opposed  Gallatin 's  financial  policy  as 
their  interests  or  whims  prompted.  Randolph 
said  of  Madison  at  this  time,  that  he  was  "  Presi- 

20 


306  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

dent  de  jure  only."  Besides  this  domestic  strife, 
the  cabinet  was  engaged  in  futile  efforts  to  resist 
the  gradually  tightening  cordon  of  British  aggres 
sion.  Erskine's  amateur  negotiations,  quickly  dis 
avowed  by  the  British  government,  and  the  short 
and  impertinent  mission  of  Jackson,  who  suc 
ceeded  him  and  was  dismissed  from  the  United 
States,  well  served  Canning's  policy  of  delay. 
Madison,  whose  prejudices  were  as  strongly  with 
Englishmen  and  English  ways  as  those  of  Jeffer 
son  were  with  the  men  and  manners  of  France, 
averse  to  war  and  withheld  also  by  Gallatin's  per 
sistent  objections,  negotiated  and  procrastinated 
until  there  was  little  left  to  argue  about.  In  De 
cember,  1809,  Macon  made  an  effort  to  pass  a 
stringent  navigation  act  to  meet  the  British  Orders 
in  Council  and  the  French  decrees.  The  bill 
passed  the  House  but  was  emasculated  in  the  Sen 
ate,  the  Republican  cabal  voting  with  the  Feder 
alists  to  strike  out  the  effective  clauses.  The  act 
interdicting  commercial  intercourse  with  Great 
Britain  and  France  expired  in  May,  1810,  and 
was  not  revived.  A  new  act  was  passed,  which 
was  a  virtual  surrender  of  every  point  in  dispute. 
Resistance  was  abandoned,  and  our  ships  and  sea 
men  were  left  to  the  mercy  of  both  belligerents. 

Mr.  Gallatin's  entire  energies  were  bent  upon 
strengthening  the  Treasury  and  opposing  reckless 
expenditures.  His  most  grievous  disappointment, 
however,  was  in  the  refusal  of  Congress  to  renew 


IN  THE   CABINET.  307 

the  charter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  He 
used  every  possible  effort  to  save  this  institution, 
which,  in  the  condition  of  the  country,  was  indis 
pensable  to  a  sound  currency  and  the  maintenance 
of  specie  payment.  But  with  the  dead  weight  of 
M%  Madison's  silence,  if  not  indifference,  the 
struggle  was  unequal  and  the  bank  fell.  The 
course  of  Mr.  Madison  can  hardly  be  excused. 
Political  history  records  few  examples  of  a  more 
cruel  desertion  of  a  cabinet  minister  by  his  chief. 
Mr.  Gallatin  felt  it  deeply  and  tendered  his  resig 
nation.  The  administration  was  going  to  pieces 
by  sheer  incapacity.  The  leaders  took  alarm  and 
the  cabinet  was  reconstructed,  Monroe  being  called 
to  the  Department  of  State.  But  the  enemies  of 
Mr.  Gallatin  still  clung  to  his  skirts,  determined 
to  drag  him  to  the  dust.  Duane  attacked  him  in 
the  most  dangerous  rrianner.  Probably  no  man  in 
America  has  ever  been  abused,  vilified,  maligned 
with  such  deliberate  persistency  as  was  Gallatin 
in  the  "  Aurora  "  from  the  beginning  of  1811  un 
til  the  cabinet  crisis,  when  Mr.  Madison  was  com 
pelled  to  choose  between  Smith  and  himself.  Day 
after  day  leaders  were  devoted  to  personal  assault 
upon  him  and  to  indirect  insinuations  of  his  supe 
riority  to  Madison,  by  which  the  artful  editor 
sought  to  arouse  the  jealousy  of  the  President. 
The  "Atlas  at  the  side  of  the  President,"  the 
"  Great  Treasury  Law  Giver,"  the  "  First  Lord 
of  the  Treasury,"  the  "  Dagon  of  the  Philistines," 


308  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

were  favorite  epithets.  He  was  charged  by  turns 
with  betraying  cabinet  secrets  to  Randolph,  with 
amateur  negotiation  with  Erskine,  and  with  sub 
serviency  to  British  gold  in  the  support  of  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States.  Here  is  an  instance 
of  Duane's  style :  "  We  can  say  with  perfect  con 
viction  that,  if  Mr.  Madison  suffer  this  man  to 
lord  it  over  him,  Mr.  Gallatin  will  drag  hirn  down, 
for  no  honest  man  in  the  country  can  support  an 
administration  of  which  he  is  a  member  with  con 
sistency  or  a  pure  conscience."  It  was  charged 
upon  Gallatin  that  his  friends  considered  him  as 
the  real,  while  Madison  was  the  nominal,  Presi 
dent.  More  than  this,  he  was  accused  of  embez 
zlement  and  enormous  speculations  in  the  public 
lands.  Gallatin's  party  pride  must  have  been 
strong  indeed  to  have  induced  him  to  stay  an  hour 
in  an  administration  which  granted  its  favors  to 
the  author  of  such  assaults  upon  one  of  its  chosen 
leaders. 

Jefferson  wrote  to  Mr.  Wirt  in  May  following, 
that,  because  of  the  bank,  endeavors  were  made 
to  drive  from  the  administration  (of  Mr.  Madison) 
the  ablest  man,  except  the  President,  who  ever 
was  in  it,  and  to  beat  down  the  President  him 
self  because  he  was  unwilling  to  part  "with  such  a 
counsellor. 

Monroe  was  appointed  Secretary  of  State  in 
Smith's  place  in  April,  1811.  Other  changes  fol 
lowed  in  the  cabinet,  but  brought  little  relief  to 


IN  THE  CABINET.  309 

Mr.  Gallatin.  Financial  affairs  now  occupied  his 
entire  attention ;  on  the  one  hand  was  a  dimin 
ishing  treasury ;  on  the  other  an  expenditure 
reckless  in  itself  and  beyond  the  demands  of  the 
administration.  Without  the  sympathy  of  either 
the  Senate  or  House,  Mr.  Gallatin's  position  be 
came  daily  more  irksome,  until  at  last  he  aban 
doned  all  attempt  to  control  the  drift  of  party 
policy,  took  the  war  party  at  their  word,  and  sent 
in  to  the  House  a  war  budget. 

Unfortunately  for  the  country,  the  Republican 
party  knew  neither  how  to  prepare  for  war,  nor 
how  to  keep  the  peace.  Mr.  Madison  had  none  of 
the  qualifications  of  a  war  President ;  neither  ex 
ecutive  ability,  decision  of  character,  nor  yet  that 
more  important  faculty,  knowledge  of  men.  In 
his  attachment  to  Mr.  Madison  and  in  loyalty  to 
what  remained  of  the  once  proud  triumvirate  of 
talent  and  power,  Mr.  Gallatin  supplied  the  de 
ficiencies  of  his  fellows  as  best  he  could,  until  an 
offer  of  mediation  between  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain  on  the  part  of  the  Emperor  of  Rus 
sia  presented  an  opportunity  for  honorable  with 
drawal  and  service  in  another  and  perhaps  more 
congenial  field.  In  March,  1813,  the  Russian  min 
ister,  in  a  note  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  tendered 
this  offer.  Mr.  Gallatin  had  completed  his  finan 
cial  arrangements  for  the  year,  and  requested  Mr. 
Madison  to  send  him  abroad  on  this  mission. 
Unwilling  to  take  the  risk  of  new  appointments. 


310  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

the  President  acceded  to  this  proposal,  and  gave 
him  leave  of  absence  from  his  post  in  the  Treas 
ury.  Mr.  Gallatin  did  not  anticipate  a  long  ab 
sence,  and  felt,  as  he  said  to  his  old  friend  Ba- 
dollet,  that  he  could  nowhere  be  more  usefully 
employed  than  in  this  negotiation.  Certainly  he 
could  have  no  regret  in  leaving  a  cabinet  which 
had  so  little  regard  to  his  own  feelings  and  so  lit 
tle  political  decency  as  to  confer  the  appointment 
of  adjutant-general  in  the  United  States  army  on 
his  malignant  assailant,  William  Duane  of  the 
"Aurora." 

Mr.  Gallatin's  mission,  followed  by  the  resigna 
tion  of  his  post  in  the  cabinet,  finally  dissolved 
the  political  triumvirate,  but  not  the  personal 
friendship  of  the  men.  Numerous  attempts  were 
made  to  alienate  both  Jefferson  and  Madison  from 
Gallatin  while  he  held  the  portfolio  of  the  Treas 
ury,  but  one  and  all  they  signally  and  ignomin- 
iously  failed.  For  Mr.  Jefferson  Mr.  Gallatin  had 
a  regard  near  akin  to  reverence.  A  portrait  of 
the  venerable  sage  was  always  on  his  study  table. 
When  about  setting  out  for  France  in  1816  he 
tendered  his  services  to  his  old  chief  and  wrote  to 
him  that  c  in  every  country  and  in  all  times  he 
•  should  never  cease  to  feel  gratitude,  respect,  and 
Lattachment  for  him.'  Jefferson  fully  reciprocated 
this  regard.  From  Monticello  he  wrote  to  Galla 
tin  in  1823 :  "  A  visit  from  you  to  this  place 
would  indeed  be  a  day  of  jubilee,  but  your  age 


IN  THE  CABINET.  311 

and  distance  forbid  the  hope.  Be  this  as  it  will, 
I  shall  love  you  forever,  and  rejoice  in  your  re 
joicings  and  sympathize  in  your  ails.  God  bless 
and  have  you  ever  in  his  holy  keeping."  Nor 
does  Mr.  Gallatin  seem  to  have  allowed  any  feel 
ing  of  disappointment  or  dissatisfaction  at  Mr. 
Madison's  weakness  to  disturb  their  kindly  rela 
tions.  Their  letters  close  with  the  reciprocal  as 
surance  of  affection  as  well  as  esteem. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

IN  DIPLOMACY. 
THE    TREATY    OF    GHENT. 

ON  May  9,  1813,  the  ship  Neptune  sailed  from 
New  Castle  on  the  Delaware,  having  on  board 
Albert  Gallatin  and  James  A.  Bayard,  ministers 
of  the  United  States,  with  their  four  secretaries,  of 
whom  were  Mr.  Gallatin's  son  James,  and  George 
M.  Dallas,  son  of  his  old  Pennsylvania  friend. 
They  were  accompanied  to  sea  by  a  revenue  cut 
ter.  Off  Cape  Henlopen  they  were  overhauled 
by  the  British  frigate  on  the  station,  and  their 
passport  was  countersigned  by  the  English  cap 
tain.  On  June  20  they  reached  the  mouth  of  the 
river  Gotha.  Here  the  vessel  lay  at  quarantine 
for  forty-eight  hours,  during  which  the  gentlemen 
paid  a  flying  visit  to  Gottenburg.  At  dusk,  on 
the  24th,  the  Neptune  anchored  in  Copenhagen 
inner  roads,  the  scene  of  Nelson's  attack  in  1801. 
Mr.  Gallatin's  brief  memoranda  of  his  voyage 
contain  some  crisp  expressions.  He  found  "  des 
potism  and  no  oppression.  Poverty  and  no  dis 
content.  Civility  and  no  servile  obsequiousness 
amongst  the  people.  Decency  and  sobriety." 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  313 

St.  Petersburg  was  reached  on  July  21.  Here 
Gallatin  and  Bayard  found  John  Quincy  Adams, 
then  minister  to  Russia.  He  was  one  of  the  three 
commissioners  appointed  to  treat  for  peace  under 
the  mediation  which  the  Emperor  Alexander  had 
offered  to  the  United  States.  Bayard  and  Adams 
were  Federalists.  To  the  moderate  counsels  of 
the  former  Jefferson  owed  his  peaceable  elec 
tion.  Gallatin  and  Adams  had  the  advantage  of 
thorough  acquaintance  with  European  politics. 
To  Gallatin  the  study  of  history  was  a  passion. 
He  was  familiar  with  the  facts  and  traditions  of 
diplomacy.  He  knew  the  purpose,  the  tenor,  and 
the  result  of  every  treaty  made  for  centuries  be 
tween  the  great  powers ;  even  their  dates  were  at 
ready  command  in  his  wonderful  memory.  But, 
excepting  the  few  Frenchmen  of  distinction  who  in 
the  exile  which  political  revulsions  imposed  upon 
them  had  crossed  the  sea,  he  had  no  acquaint 
ance  with  Europeans  of  high  position,  and  none 
whatever  with  the  diplomatic  personnel  of  Euro 
pean  courts.  In  this  Adams  was  more  fortunate. 
Educated  abroad,  while  his  father  was  minister  to 
the  Court  of  St.  James,  he  was  from  youth  familiar 
with  courts  and  their  ways.  To  be  the  son  of  a 
President  of  the  United  States  was  no  small  mat 
ter  at  that  day.  The  conjunction  of  these  two 
men  was  rare.  One  of  European  birth  and  trained 
to  American  politics,  the  other  of  American  birth 
and  brought  up  in  the  atmosphere  of  European 


314  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

diplomacy.  In  their  natural  characteristics  they 
were  the  opposite  of  one  another.  Adams  was 
impetuous,  overbearing,  impatient  of  contradict 
tion  or  opposition.  Gallatin  was  calm,  self-con 
trolled,  persistent ;  not  jealous  of  his  opinions, 
but  ready  to  yield  or  abandon  his  own  methods,  if 
those  of  others  promised  better  success ;  never 
blinded  by  passion  or  prejudice,  but  holding  the 
end  always  in  view.  That  end  was  peace  ;  "  peace 
at  all  times  desirable,"  as  Mr.  Gallatin  said  a  few 
days  before  his  departure  on  his  mission,  but 
much  more  so,  '  because  of  the  incapacity  shown 
in  the  conduct  of  the  war,  its  inefficiency  when  com 
pared  with  its  expense,  and  the  open  hostility  to  it 
of  a  large  number  of  the  American  people.'  In 
the  face  of  the  disasters  which  had  befallen  the 
country  Mr.  Gallatin  must  have  felt  some  qualms 
of  conscience  for  his  persistent  opposition  to  the 
military  and  naval  establishments.  Their  reor 
ganization  had  place  in  his  desire  for  peace.  He 
said,  May  5,  1813 :  "  Taught  by  experience,  we 
will  apply  a  part  of  our  resources  to  such  naval 
preparations  and  organization  of  the  public  force 
as  will,  within  less  than  five  years,  place  us  in  a 
commanding  situation."  With  the  particulars  of 
the  dispute  between  the  two  countries  he  was 
perfectly  familiar.  His  report  prepared  in  1808 
for  Mr.  Campbell,  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Foreign  Relations,  covered  the  whole  ground  of 
the  American  argument. 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  315 

At  the  outset  there  seemed  good  ground  for 
hope  of  an  early  agreement.  European  politics 
were  at  a  critical  point,  and  England  naturally 
wished  to  husband  her  resources  for  a  sudden 
emergency.  The  mediation  of  Russia  Mr.  Gal- 
latin  considered  a  salve  to  the  pride  of  England. 
This  reasoning  seemed  sound  enough,  but  it  had 
not  taken  account  of  one  important  element:  the 
jealousy  of  England  of  any  outside  interference 
between  herself  and  her  ancient  dependencies. 
Mr.  Gallatin  did  not  hold  English  diplomacy  in 
very  high  regard.  Late  in  life  he  said  that  the 
history  of  the  relations  of  England  and  France 
was  a  story  of  the  triumphs  of  English  arms  and 
of  French  diplomacy  ;  that  England  was  always 
victorious,  but  France  had  as  often  negotiated  her 
out  of  the  fruits  of  success.  True  as  this  remark 
was  in  general,  it  cannot  be  said  of  the  policy  of 
England  in  American  affairs.  She  pushed  to  the 
utmost  her  exclusion  of  France  from  the  Amer 
ican  continent  when  the  states  were  colonies,  and 
now  that  they  were  free  and  independent  she 
would  listen  to  no  foreign  intervention.  Neither 
in  peace  nor  war  should  any  third  government 
stand  between  the  two  nations.  This  was  and 
ever  has  been  the  true  policy  of  Great  Britain, 
and  that  it  was  not  lost  sight  of  in  the  heat  of 
war  is  to  the  credit  of  her  diplomacy.  The  offer 
of  Russia  to  mediate  was  not  welcome,  and  was 
set  aside  by  Lord  Castlereagh  in  a  note  of  dis- 


316  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

couragement.  There  was  no  ground  for  the  com 
missioners  to  stand  upon ;  moreover  the  Emperor 
and  Count  Nesselrode  were  absent  from  St.  Pe 
tersburg,  Count  Romanzoff  being  left  in  charge  of 
the  foreign  relations.  The  offer  of  mediation  had 
originated  with  him.  His  policy  was  to  curb  the 
maritime  power  of  England,  and  to  secure  in  the 
negotiation  a  modification  at  least  of  the  offensive 
practice  of  Great  Britain  in  her  assumed  police  of 
the  sea. 

The  war  was  in  fact  a  legacy  of  the  necessarily 
incomplete  diplomacy  of  Washington's  adminis 
tration  and  the  Jay  treaty.  The  determining 
cause  was  the  enforcement  of  the  right  of  search 
and  the  impressment  of  seamen  from  American 
vessels ;  a  practice  at  variance  with  the  rights 
and  the  law  of  nations.  Monroe,  Madison  s  Sec 
retary  of  State,  urged  the  clear  and  distinct  for- 
frearance  of  this  British  practice  as  the  one  ob 
ject  ti?  be  obtained.  An  article  in  the  treaty 
giving  security  in  that  respect  was  by  Gallatin, 
as  well  as  byr  Monroe,  considered  a  sine  qua  non 
condition ;  whiief  Mr.  Bayard  viewed  an  informal 
arrangement  as  ^equally  efficient  and  more  prac 
ticable  than  a  solemn  article.  But  there  was  no 
doubt  of  Bayard's  determination  to  reach  the  re 
sult  prescribed  in  their  instructions. 

Mr.  Gallatin's  firs't  act  after  setting  foot  on  Eu 
ropean  shores  was  to  write  to  Baring  Brothers  & 
Co.  at  London.  This  he  did  from  Gottenburg,  re- 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  317 

questing  a  passport  for  the  Neptune,  which  the 
commission  proposed  to  retain  at  St.  Petersburg 
until  their  return.  At  the  same  time  he  intimated 
that  he  wished  the  British  government  to  be  in 
formed  of  the  object  of  the  mission.  For  the  ex 
penses  of  the  commission  the  ambassadors  had  au 
thority  to  draw  on  the  Barings.  The  reply  of  Mr. 
Alexander  Baring  must  at  once  have  opened  Mr. 
Gallatin's  eyes  to  the  futility  of  the  errand  of  the 
commissioners.  His  words  clearly  state  the  Brit 
ish  grounds  of  objection  :  "  The  mediation  of  Rus 
sia  was  offered,  not  sought, — it  was  fairly  and 
frankly  accepted,  —  I  do  not  see  how  America 
could  with  any  consistency  refuse  it ;  but  to  the 
eyes  of  a  European  politician  it  was  clear  that 
such  an  interference  could  produce  no  practical 
benefit.  The  only  question  now  seriously  at  issue 
between  us  is  one  purely  of  a  domestic  nature  in 
each  country  respectively  ;  no  foreign  government 
can  fairly  judge  of  it."  Pointing  out  the  diffi 
culty  of  establishing  any  distinction  between  the 
great  masses  of  the  seafaring  population  of  Great 
Britain  and  America,  he  finds  that  no  other  coun 
try  can  judge  of  the  various  positions  of  great 
delicacy  and  importance  which  spring  from  sucli 
a  state  of  things  ;  and  says  :  "  This  is  not  the  way 
for  Great  Britain  and  America  really  to  settle 
their  disputes ;  intelligent  persons  of  the  two 
countries  might  devise  mutual  securities  and  con 
cessions  which  perhaps  neither  country  would  of- 


318  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

fer  in  the  presence  of  a  third  party.  It  is  a  sort 
of  family  quarrel  where  foreign  interference  can 
only  do  harm  and  irritate  at  any  time,  but  more 
especially  in  the  present  state  of  Europe,  when 
attempts  would  be  made  to  make  a  tool  of  Amer 
ica."  These,  he  said  he  had  good  reason  to 
know,  were  the  sentiments  of  the  British  cabinet 
on  the  question  of  place  of  negotiation  and  for 
eign  mediation.  He  also  Informed  Mr.  Gallatin 
that  the  mediation  of  Russia  had  been  refused, 
and  that  the  British  government  would  express 
its  desire  to  treat  separately  and  directly  either  at 
London  or  Gottenburg.  He  warned  Mr.  Gallatin 
that  an  opinion  prevailed  in  the  British  public 
that  the  United  States  were  engaged  to  France  by 
a  secret  political  connection,  which  belief,  though 
perhaps  not  shared  by  the  government,  would  lead 
it  to  consider  the  persevering  of  the  American 
commission  upon  bringing  the  insulated  question 
before  the  powers  of  the  Continent  as  a  touch 
stone  of  their  sincerity.  He  hoped  that  the  Amer 
ican  commissioners  would  come  at  once  in  contact 
with  the  British  ministers,  and  pointed  out  the 
hesitation  that  every  minister  would  feel  at  giving 
instructions  on  a  matter  so  delicate  as  that  "  in 
volving  the  rights  and  duties  of  sovereign  and 
subject."  He  then  declared  that  there  was  in 
England  a  strong  desire  for  peace  and  for  end 
ing  a  contest  in  which  the  "  two  countries  could 
only  tease  and  weaken  each  other  without  any 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  319 

practical  result,"  and  at  a  time  when  England  de 
sired  to  carry  her  resources  into  the  "  more  impor 
tant  field  of  European  contest."  He  then  gave 
Castlereagh's  assurance,  that  the  cartel-ship,  the 
Neptune,  should  be  respected,  and  expressed  his 
own  personal  hope  that  he  should  ere  long  be 
gratified  by  seeing  it  bring,  with  the  commission 
ers,  the  hope  of  peace  to  the  shores  of  England. 

Meanwhile  Mr.  Gallatin  was  engaged  in  ex 
plaining  the  American  case  to  Romanzoff  by  con 
versation  and  by  a  written  statement  of  the  facts 
in  the  form  of  an  unofficial  note  to  the  Emperor. 
On  August  10  word  was  received  from  the  Em 
peror  Alexander  authorizing  the  renewal  of  the 
offer  of  mediation  ;  and  shortly  after  a  letter  from 
General  Moreau,  written  to  Mr.  Gallatin  from  the 
imperial  headquarters  at  Hrushova,  assured  him 
of  his  sympathy  and  assistance.  His  relations 
with  Gallatin  were  of  long  standing  and  of  an  in 
timate  nature.  Moreau,  after  a  long  residence  in 
America,  to  which  he  was  warmly  attached,  had 
lately  crossed  the  ocean  and  tendered  his  able 
sword  to  the  coalition  against  Bonaparte.  He  in 
formed  Gallatin  that  one  of  the  British  members 
had  said  to  him  in  Germany  that  England  would 
not  treat  of  her  maritime  rights  under  any  media 
tion.  He  feared  that  American  vanity  would 
hardly  consent  to  treat  directly  with  Great  Brit 
ain,  and  foresaw  that  the  political  adversaries  of 
Madison  and  Gallatin  would  blame  the  precipi- 


320  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

tation  of  the  United  States  government  in  send 
ing  over  the  envoys  before  the  adhesion  of  Eng 
land  to  the  proposed  arbitration  was  secured.  He 
assured  Gallatin  of  the  interest  of  the  Emperor 
Alexander  in  the  Americans. 

On  August  24  Count  Romanzoff  read  to  the 
envoys  his  dispatch  to  Count  Lieven,  the  Russian 
minister  at  London,  renewing  the  offer  of  media 
tion.  The  commissioners  considering  their  au 
thority  as  limited  to  treating  under  the  mediation 
of  Russia,  Mr.  Gallatin  wrote  to  Monroe,  inclos 
ing  a  copy  of  Baring's  letter,  which  he  looked 
upon  as  an  informal  communication  of  the  views 
of  the  British  government,  and  asked  for  contin 
gent  powers  and  instructions.  These  they  could 
not  expect  to  receive  before  February.  Gallatin 
replied  to  Mr.  Baring  that  no  information  of  the 
refusal  of  Great  Britain  to  the  mediation  had  been 
received,  but,  even  if  it  had,  the  commission  was 
not  authorized  to  negotiate  in  any  other  manner. 
They  were,  however,  competent  to  treat  of  com 
merce  without  mediation.  He  declined  to  discuss 
the  objection  of  Great  Britain  to  the  mediation  of 
Russia,  confining  himself  to  an  expression  of  ig 
norance  in  America  of  any  such  feeling  on  the 
part  of  the  British  ministry,  and  of  the  confidence 
placed  in  the  personal  character  of  the  Emperor, 
which  was  considered  a  sufficient  pledge  of  impar 
tiality  ;  while  the  selection  of  a  sovereign  at  war 
with  France  was  clear  evidence  that  America 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  321 

neither  had  nor  wished  to  have  any  political  con 
nection  with  that  power.  That  he  himself  be 
lieved  an  arrangement  to  be  practicable,  he  said 
to  Mr.  Baring,  was  evident  from  the  fact  that  he 
had  given  up  his  political  existence,  and  separated 
himself  from  his  family.  His  opinion  was,  that 
while  neither  nation  would  be  induced  to  abandon 
its  rights  or  pretensions  in  the  matter  of  impress 
ment,  an  arrangement  might  be  made  by  way  of 
experiment  which  would  reserve  to  both  their  re 
spective  abstract  rights,  real  or  assumed. 

To  Moreau  he  wrote  stating  his  hope  that,  not 
withstanding  the  first  objections  of  Great  Britain, 
the  mediation  of  the  Emperor  would  be  accepted, 
and  he  asked  the  general  fot1  his  personal  interpo 
sition  to  this  end.  France  and  England  he  held 
to  be  equally  at  fault  in  the  great  European  con 
test  ;  the  one  usurping  and  oppressing  the  land, 
the  other  dominating  and  tyrannizing  the  sea. 
They  alone,  said  he,  have  gained,  if  not  happiness, 
at  least  power.  Russia,  he  was  firmly  persuaded, 
was  the  only  power  at  heart  friendly  to  America. 
History  has  shown  the  sagacity  of  this  judgment. 
This  letter  was  never  answered.  Moreau  was  at 
death's  door. 

Early  in  October  Mr.  Dallas  was  sent  to  Lon 
don  to  open  relations  with  the  British  ministry. 
His  presence  there  would  save  two  months  at  least 
in  each  correspondence  which  involved  communi 
cation  between  Washington,  London,  and  St.  Pe- 
21 


322  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

tersburg.  Count  Romanzoff  gave  the  necessary 
letter  of  introduction  to  Count  Lieven.  Galla- 
tin's  instructions  to  the  young  secretary  were  ex 
plicit  as  to  the  caution  he  should  exercise  in  a 
country  where  he  could  consider  himself  as  only 
on  sufferance.  Hardly  were  these  preliminaries 
concluded,  and  Dallas  had  not  started  on  his 
journey,  when  Mr.  Gallatin  received  word  from 
America  that  the  Senate  had  refused  to  confirm 
him  in  his  position  as  commissioner.1 

Stripped  of  his  official  character,  he  now  felt 
himself  at  liberty  to  follow  his  own  inclination. 
His  first  impulse  was  to  go  to  London,  where  he 
was  sure  that  Baring's  friendship  would  open  to 
him  a  means  of  usefulness  in  the  matter  on  which 
he  was  engaged.  The  death  of  Moreau  cut  off 
the  medium  of  approach  to  the  Emperor.  This 
event  was  of  no  consequence,  however,  in  the  ne 
gotiation,  as  the  Emperor  had  been  positively  in 
formed  in  July  that  England  would  not  counte 
nance  even  the  appearance  of  foreign  intervention 
in  her  dispute  with  America.  But  as  yet  no  of 
ficial  information  of  his  rejection  had  been  re 
ceived  by  Mr.  Gallatin,  nor  did  any  reach  him 
until  March.  Without  it  he  could  not  well  leave 
St.  Petersburg.  Meanwhile  a  diplomatic  imbroglio, 
caused  by  the  failure  of  the  Emperor  to  inform 

1  Mr.  Gallatin  had  not  resigned  his  position  of  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury.  The  Senate  refused  to  sanction  the  cumulative  ap 
pointment. 


IN  DIPL  OMA CY.  323 

Romanzoff  of  Castlereagh's  second  refusal  to  ac 
cept  the  offer  of  mediation,  embarrassed  the  com 
mission  all  winter.  Nor  yet  were  they  aware  that 
the  British  minister,  driven  to  the  wall  by  the  sec 
ond  offer  of  the  Emperor,  had  made  proposals  to 
Monroe  to  treat  directly  with  the  United  States 
government.  The  British  note  with  this  offer  was 
written  on  November  4.  Mr.  Gallatin  was  ap 
prised  of  it  by  Mr.  Dallas  in  January,  1814.  Mr. 
Baring  urged  him,  if  he  should  return  to  America 
during  the  winter,  to  take  his  way  through  Eng 
land,  as  good  effects  might  result  from  even  a 
passing  visit.  Gallatin  was  then,  as  he  expressed 
it,  '  chained  for  the  winter  to  St.  Petersburg,'  nor 
had  he  any  way  of  reaching  home,  except  by  a 
cartel  from  a  British  port. 

No  word  coming  from  the  Emperor,  the  envoys 
concluded  to  withdraw  from  St.  Petersburg.  Be 
fore  leaving,  Mr.  Gallatin  addressed  a  letter  of 
thanks  to  Count  Romanzoff,  and  requested  him  to 
communicate  any  information  he  might  receive 
from  the  Emperor.  It  was  supposed  that  the  offer 
of  England  to  treat  directly  with  America  might 
be  inclosed  in  Castlereagh's  letter  of  refusal  to  ac 
cept  Russian  mediation.  On  January  25,  1814, 
Mr.  Gallatin  and  Mr.  Bayard  left  St.  Petersburg 
and  travelled  by  land  to  Amsterdam,  which  they 
reached  after  a  tedious  journey  on  March  4.  The 
captain  of  the  Neptune  was  ordered  to  bring  his 
vessel  to  a  port  of  Holland.  At  Amsterdam, 


324  ALBERT   GALLATIN. 

where  the  envoys  remained  four  weeks,  they 
learned  that  Mr.  Madison  had  at  once  accepted 
Castlereagh's  offer  and  appointed  a  new  commis 
sion,  consisting  of  Messrs.  Adams,  Bayard,  Henry 
Clay,  and  Jonathan  Russell.  Mr.  Gallatin  was 
not  included,  as  he  was  supposed  to  be  on  his  way 
home  to  resume  his  post  in  the  Treasury  Depart 
ment,  the  duties  of  which  had  been  performed  in 
his  absence  by  Mr.  Jones,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy.  When  correct  information  did  reach  Mr. 
Madison,  on  February  8,  he  immediately  added 
Mr.  Gallatin  to  the  commission,  and  appointed 
Mr.  G.  W.  Campbell  to  be  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury.  Thus  it  happened  that  Mr.  Gallatin,  whom 
Mr.  Madison  intended  for  the  head  of  the  commis 
sion,  was  the  last  named  of  those  who  conducted 
the  negotiations. 

On  April  1,  1814,  Mr.  Gallatin  concluded  to 
pass  through  England  on  his  return,  and  leaving 
orders  for  the  Neptune  on  its  arrival  to  proceed 
to  Falmouth,  he  took  the  packet  to  Harwich, 
whither  he  requested  Mr.  Baring  to  send  him  the 
requisite  passports  to  enable  him  to  reach  London 
with  his  suite  without  delay. 

In  company  with  Mr.  Bayard,  Mr.  Gallatin 
reached  the  English  capital  on  April  9,  1814. 
There  they  heard  some  days  later  of  the  arrival  of 
Messrs.  Clay  and  Russell  at  Gottenburg.  The 
situation  of  Great  Britain  had  greatly  changed. 
Intoxicated  with  the  success  of  their  arms  and  the 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  325 

abdication  of  Napoleon,  the  English  people  were 
quite  ready  to  undertake  the  punishment  of  the 
United  States,  while  the  release  of  a  large  body  of 
trained  troops  in  France,  Italy,  Holland,  and  Por 
tugal  enabled  the  ministry  immediately  to  throw 
a  large  force  into  Canada  for  the  summer  campaign. 
In  the  British  cabinet  a  belief  was  said  to  be  en 
tertained  that  a  continuance  of  the  war  would  bring 
about  a  separation  of  the  American  Union,  and 
perhaps  a  return  of  New  England  to  the  mother 
country.  In  this  emergency  Gallatin  availed  him 
self  of  the  opportunity  which  presented  itself  of 
addressing  Lafayette  in  sending  to  that  officer  the 
patents  for  the  Louisiana  land  granted  to  him  by 
the  American  government,  and  urged  the  use  of  his 
influence  to  promote  an  accommodation  between 
England  and  the  United  States. 

To  Clay  he  wrote  on  April  22,  proposing  that 
the  place  of  negotiation  be  changed  from  "  that 
corner  "  Gottenburg,  either  to  London,  or  some 
neutral  place  more  accessible  to  the  friendly  inter 
ference  of  those  among  the  European  powers  upon 
which  they  must  greatly  rely.  The  Emperor  Alex 
ander  was  expected  in  London,  and  Castlereagh, 
who  had  recently  returned  from  France  where  he 
had  been  in  direct  intercourse  with  him,  was  under 
stood  to  be  of  all  the  cabinet  the  best  disposed  to 
the  United  States.  From  Clay  Gallatin  heard  in 
reply  that  the  British  charge*  d'affaires  at  Stock 
holm  had  already  asked  the  sanction  of  the  Swed- 


326  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

ish  government  to  the  negotiation  at  Gottenburg. 
While  Clay  was  unwilling  to  go  to  London  he  gave 
his  consent  to  carry  on  the  negotiations  in  Holland, 
if  the  arrangement  could  be  made  in  such  a  man 
ner  as  to  avoid  any  ill  feeling  at  the  Swedish  court 
by  the  change  from  Gottenburg.  In  May  Gallatin 
and  Bayard  asked  of  Monroe  authority  for  the  com 
missioners  to  remove  the  negotiation  to  any  place 
which  their  judgment  should  prefer.  In  May, 
also,  the  British  government  was  officially  notified 
by  the  American  commissioners  of  their  appoint 
ment.  Lord  Bathurst  answered  with  an  assurance 
that  commissioners  would  be  forthwith  appointed 
for  Great  Britain,  and  with  a  proposal  of  Ghent 
as  the  place  for  negotiation.  This  was  at  once  ac 
ceded  to. 

Meanwhile  Mr.  Crawford,  the  United  States 
minister  at  Paris,  was  endeavoring,  at  the  instance 
of  Mr.  Gallatin,  to  secure  the  friendly  interposition 
of  the  Emperor  Alexander,  not  as  a  mediator,  but 
as  a  common  friend  and  in  the  interest  of  peace  to 
the  civilized  world.  Crawford  was  unable  to  ob 
tain  an  audience  of  the  Emperor,  or  even  an  inter, 
view  with  Count  Nesselrode,  but  Lafayette  took 
up  the  cause  with  his  hearty  zeal  for  everything 
that  concerned  the  United  States,  and,  in  a  long 
interview  with  the  Emperor  at  the  house  of  Ma 
dame  de  Stael,  submitted  to  him  the  view  taken 
by  the  United  States  of  the  controversy,  and  ob 
tained  from  him  his  promise  to  exert  his  personal 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  327 

influence  with  the  British  goverment  on  his  arrival 
at  London.  Baron  von  Humboldt,  the  Prussian 
minister  at  Paris,  who  had  been  influenced  by 
British  misrepresentation,  was  also  won  over  by 
Lafayette,  and  now  tendered  his  services  to  Mr. 
Gallatin  in  any  way  in  which  he  might  be  made 
useful.  Lafayette's  letter  was  brought  by  Hum 
boldt  in  person.  Gallatin  and  Humboldt  had  met 
in  1804,  when  the  great  traveller  passed  through 
Washington  on  his  return  from  Peru  and  Mexico. 

The  Treaty  of  Paris  having  been  signed,  Lord 
Castlereagh  reached  London  early  in  June,  and 
the  Emperor  arrived  a  few  days  later.  Mr.  Galla 
tin  had  an  audience  of  the  Emperor  on  June  17, 
and  on  the  19th  submitted  an  official  statement 
of  the  American  case  and  an  appeal  for  the  inter 
position  of  his  imperial  majesty,  "  the  liberator 
and  pacifier  of  Europe."  From  the  interview  Mr. 
Gallatin  learned  that  the  Emperor  had  made  three 
attempts  in  the  interest  of  peace,  but  that  he  had 
no  hope  that  his  representations  had  been  of  any 
service.  England  would  not  admit  a  third  party 
to  interfere,  and  he  thought  that,  with  respect  to 
the  conditions  of  peace,  the  difficulty  would  be 
with  England  and  not  with  America. 

On  June  13  Gallatin  warned  Monroe  of  the 
preparations  England  was  making  which  would  en 
able  her  to  land  fifteen  to  twenty  thousand  men 
on  the  Atlantic  coast ;  that  the  capture  of  Wash 
ington  and  New  York  would  most  gratify  the 


328  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

British  people,  and  that  no  help  need  be  expected 
from  the  countries  of  Europe,  all  which  were  pro 
foundly  desirous  of  peace. 

The  ministry  informing  Mr.  Gallatin  that  the 
British  commissioners  would  start  for  Ghent  on 
July  1,  he  improved  the  interval  by  a  visit  to  Paris. 
He  left  London,  where  he  had  passed  nearly  three 
months  in  the  uncertain  preliminaries  of  negotia 
tion,  and  after  a  few  days  in  the  French  capital 
reached  Ghent  on  July  6.  The  British  commis 
sioners  only  appeared  on  August  6.  They  were 
Lord  Gambier,  Henry  Goulburn,  and  William 
Adams,  all  second-rate  men,  but  for  this  reason 
suited  to  the  part  they  had  to  play.  After  the 
overturn  of  Napoleon  the  British  cabinet  had  no 
desire  for  peace,  or  at  least  not  until  they  had 
secured  by  war  some  material  advantages  in  the 
United  States,  which  a  treaty  would  confirm.  The 
business  of  their  representatives  at  Ghent  was  to 
make  exorbitant  demands  of  the  Americans  and 
delay  negotiations  pending  the  military  operations 
in  progress. 

In  June  Gallatin  was  satisfied  of  the  general 
hostile  spirit  of  Great  Britain  and  of  its  wish  to 
inflict  serious  injury  on  the  United  States.  He 
notified  Monroe  of  his  opinion  and  warned  him 
that  the  most  favorable  terms  to  be  expected  were 
the  status  ante  bellum,  and  not  certainly  that,  un 
less  the  American  people  were  united  and  the 
country  able  to  stand  the  shock  of  the  campaign, 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  329 

Mr.  Madison's  administration  had  already  humbled 
itself  to  an  abandonment,  or  at  least  to  an  adjourn 
ment,  of  the  principle  to  establish  which  they  had 
resorted  to  arms.     But  in  the  first  stages  of  the 
negotiation  it  was  clear  that  the  British  cabinet 
had  more  serious  and  dangerous  objects  in  view, 
and  looked  beyond  aggression  and  temporary  in 
jury  to  permanent  objects.     At  the  first  meeting 
on  August  8,  the  British  commissioners  demanded, 
as  a  preliminary  to  any  negotiation,  that  the  United 
States  should  set  apart  to  the  Indian  tribes  the 
entire  territory  of  the  Northwest  to  be  held  by 
them  forever  in  sovereignty  under  the  guaranty  of 
Great  Britain.     The  absurdity  of  such  a  demand 
is  sufficient  evidence  that  it  was  never  seriously 
entertained.     There  could  have  been  no  idea  that 
the  military  power  of  Great  Britain  was  able  to 
enforce,  or  that  the  United  States  would  abjectly 
submit  to,  such  a  mutilation  of  its  territory  and 
such  a  limitation  of  its  expansion.     Behind  this 
cover  Mr.  Gallatin  instinctively  detected  the  real 
design  of  the  cabinet  to  be  the  conquest  of  New 
Orleans  and  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi.     If  to 
the  territory  thus  acquired  that  of  Florida  should 
be  added  by  cession  from  Spain,  which  could  hardly 
refuse  any  compensation  asked  of  her  by  Great 
Britain  in  return  for  the  liberation  of  the  Peninsula, 
a  second  British  dominion  would  be  set  up  on  the 
American  continent.     These  views  Gallatin  com 
municated  to  Monroe  in  a  private  dispatch  of  Au- 


330  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

gust  20,  1814,  by  the  hands  of  Mr.  Dallas.     To 

the  sine  qua  non  of  the  British  commissioners  no 
answer  was  made  by  the  Americans.  The  nego 
tiation  was  abruptly  suspended,  and  only  by  infor 
mal  conversation  was  Mr.  Goulburn  given  to  un 
derstand  that  reference  had  been  had  to  America 
for  instructions.  Mr.  Gallatin  was  of  opinion  that 
the  negotiations  were  at  an  end,  and  in  his  de 
spair  of  peace  took  consolation  in  the  belief  that 
the  insolence  of  the  demand  would  unite  America 
from  Maine  to  Georgia  in  defence  of  her  rights, 
of  her  territory,  and  indeed  of  her  independence. 
The  American  commissioners  made  no  secret  of 
their  belief  that  their  mission  was  closed.  Two 
of  the  secretaries  started  from  Ghent  on  a  con 
tinental  tour,  and  notice  was  given  to  the  land 
lord  of  the  house  where  the  commissioners  resided 
of  their  intention  to  quit  it  on  October  1.  On 
August  2,  while  matters  were  still  at  this  dead 
lock,  Lord  Castlereagh  passed  through  Ghent  on 
his  way  to  the  Congress  at  Vienna.  Goulburn 
was  ordered  to  change  his  tone  and  Lord  Liver 
pool  was  advised  to  moderate  his  demands ;  to  use 
Castlereagh's  words,  to  "  a  letting  down  of  the 
question."  Lord  Liverpool  replied  on  September 
2,  that  he  had  already  given  Goulburn  to  under 
stand  that  the  commission  had  taken  a  very  er 
roneous  view  of  British  policy.  In  this  communi 
cation  he  betrays  the  hope,  which  the  cabinet 
entertained,  of  American  dissensions,  by  his  ex- 


IN  DIPL  OMA  CY.  331 

pression  of  the  opinion  that  if  the  negotiation  had 
broken  off  on  the  notes  already  presented  by  the 
British  commission,  or  the  answer  that  the  Ameri 
cans  were  disposed  to  make,  the  war  would  have 
become  popular  in  America. 

Lord  Bathurst  reopened  the  negotiations,  but 
his  modification  was  of  tone  rather  than  of  matter. 
The  surrender  of  the  control  of  the  Lakes  to  Great 
Britain,  and  of  the  Northwest  Territory  to  the  In 
dians,  was  still  adhered  to.  The  reply  of  the 
American  commissioners  was  drawn  chiefly  bv 
Mr.  Gallatin.  It  absolutely  rejectedjfee.  proposals 
respecting  the  boundary  and  the  military  flag  on 
the  Lakes,  and  refused  even  to  refer  them  to  the 
American  government,  but  offered  to  pursue  the 
negotiation*  on  the  other  points.  To  Monroe  Mr. 
Gallatin  explained  his  reason  for  assenting  to  dis 
cuss  the  Indian  article,  and  therein  his  colleagues 
concurred  with  him,  to  be :  that  they  had  little  hope 
of  peace,  but  thought  it  desirable,  if  there  were 
to  be  a  breach,  that  it  should  be  on  other  grounds 
than  that  of  Indian  pacification.  The  reply  of  the 
commission  on  this  point,  also  drafted  by  Mr.  Gal 
latin,  was  sent  in  on  September  26.  It  merely 
guarantied  the  Indians  in  all  their  old  rights,  priv 
ileges,  and  possessions. 

The  destruction  of  the  public  buildings  at 
Washington  by  the  British  troops,  known  in  Lon 
don  on  October  1,  caused  a  great  sensation  in  Eng 
land.  As  Gallatin  said  in  a  letter  to  Madame  de 


332  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

Stael,  it  was  "  an  act  of  vandalism  to  which  no 
parallel  could  be  found  in  the  twenty  years  of  Eu 
ropean  war  from  the  frontiers  of  Russia  to  Paris, 
and  from  those  of  Denmark  to  Naples."  "  Was 
it  (he  asked),  because,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
cathedrals,  England  had  no  public  buildings  com 
parable  to  them,  or  was  it  to  console  the  London 
mob  for  their  disappointment,  that  Paris  was 
neither  pillaged  nor  burned."  It  can  hardly  be 
doubted  that  the  flames  which  consumed  the 
American  capital  lighted  the  way  to  peace.  The 
atrocity  of  war  was  again  brought  vividly  to  the 
view  of  nations  whose  sole  yearning  was  for  peace. 
Far  from  discouraging  the  American  commission 
ers,  it  fortified  their  determination.  They  knew 
that  it  would  unite  the  people  of  the  States  as 
one  man.  It  in  no  way  disturbed  Gallatin's  confi 
dence  either  in  the  present  or  future  of  his  adopted 
country.  To  those  who  asked  his  opinion  of  the 
securities  of  the  United  States,  he  said :  "  If  I 
have  not  wholly  misunderstood  America,  its  re 
sources  and  its  political  morality,  I  am  not  wrong 
in  the  belief  that  its  public  funds  are  more  secure 
than  those  of  all  European  powers." 

In  spite  of  the  protests  of  Mr.  Goulburn,  who 
felt  the  ground  on  which  he  stood  daily  less  stable, 
and  in  his  letters  to  his  chief  was  unsparing  in  his 
denunciations,  Lord  Liverpool  accepted  the  pro 
posed  settlement  of  the  Indian  question.  Nothing 
remained  but  to  incorporate  in  a  treaty  form  the 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  333 

points  agreed  upon.  Lord  Bathurst,  who  seems 
throughout  the  negotiation  to  have  forgotten  the 
old  adage,  that  "  fine  words  butter  no  parsnips," 
and  with  true  British  blindness  never  to  have  ap 
preciated  how  thoroughly  he  was  overmatched  by 
Mr.  Gallatin,  submitted  a  preliminary  notification 
that  the  British  terms  would  be  based  on  the  prin 
ciple  of  uti  possidetis  which  involved  a  rectifica 
tion  of  the  boundaries  on  the  Canadian  frontier. 
To  this  the  Americans  returned  a  peremptory  re 
fusal.  They  would  not  go  one  step  farther  except 
on  the  basis  of  the  status  quo  ante  bellum.  Lord 
Liverpool  considered  this  as  conclusive.  A  vigo 
rous  prosecution  of  the  war  was  resolved  upon  by 
the  cabinet.  Only  for  reasons  of  expediency  was 
a  show  of  negotiation  still  kept  up.  But  when  the 
cabinet  took  a  survey  of  the  general  field  they  felt 
little  complacency  in  the  prospect  of  a  struggle 
which  sooner  or  later  must  interest  the  maritime 
powers.  France,  compelled  by  the  peace  of  Vienna 
to  withdraw  from  what  even  Lafayette  considered 
as  her  natural  frontier,  was  restive,  and  there  was 
a  large  party  in  Russia  who  would  gladly  see  the 
Emperor  take  up  the  American  cause.  Moreover 
the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  saw  before  him 
an  inevitable  addition  of  ten  millions  of  pounds 
sterling  to  his  budget,  the  only  avowable  rea 
son  for  which  was  the  rectification  of  the  Cana 
dian  frontier.  In  their  distress  the  cabinet  pro 
posed  to  Wellington  to  go  to  the  United  States 


334  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

with  the  olive-branch  and  the  sword,  to  negotiate 
or  conquer  a  peace.  The  desire  of  the  cabinet 
to  bring  the  war  to  an  honorable  conclusion  was 
avowed.  But  Wellington,  before  accepting  this 
proposal,  gave  Lord  Liverpool  a  very  frank  opin 
ion  of  the  mistake  made  in  exacting  territorial 
concessions,  since  the  British  held  no  territory  of 
the  United  States  in  other  than  temporary  posses 
sion,  and  had  no  right  to  make  any  such  demand. 
Lord  Liverpool  was  not  tenacious.  He  was  never, 
he  wrote  Lord  Bathurst,  much  inclined  to  give 
way  to  the  Americans,  but  the  cabinet  felt  itself 
compelled  to  withdraw  from  its  extreme  ground. 
He  accepted  his  defeat  and  acknowledged  it. 

The  Americans  meanwhile  arranged  a  draft  of  a 
treaty.  The  articles  on  impressment  and  other 
maritime  rights,  absolutely  rejected  by  the  British, 
were  set  aside.  There  only  remained  the  question 
of  the  boundaries,  the  fisheries,  and  the  navigation 
of  the  Mississippi.  Here  Mr.  Gallatin  had  as  much 
difficulty  in  maintaining  harmony  between  Adams 
and  Clay  as  in  obtaining  a  peace  from  Liverpool 
and  Bathurst.  Adams  was  determined  to  save  the 
fisheries ;  Clay  would  not  hear  of  opening  the  Mis 
sissippi  to  British  vessels.  A  compromise  was  ef 
fected  by  which  it  was  agreed  that  no  allusion 
should  be  made  to  either  subject.  Mr.  Gallatin 
terminated  the  dispute  by  adding  a  declaration  that 
the  commissioners  were  willing  to  sign  a  treaty 
applying  the  principle  of  the  status  quo  ante  bellum 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  335 

to  all  the  subjects  of  difference.  This  was  in  strict 
conformity  with  the  instructions  from  the  home 
government.  On  November  10  the  American  draft 
was  sent  in.  On  the  25th  the  British  replied  with 
a  counter-draft  which  made  no  allusion  to  the  fish 
eries,  but  stipulated  for  the  free  navigation  of  the 
Mississippi.  The  Americans  replied  that  they 
would  give  up  the  navigation  of  the  river  for  a 
surrender  of  the  fisheries.  This  proposal  was  at 
once  refused  by  the  British.  The  matter  was  set 
tled  by  an  offer  of  the  Americans  to  negotiate  un 
der  a  distinct  reservation  of  all  American  rights. 
All  stipulations  on  either  subject  were  in  the  end 
omitted,  the  British  government  on  December  22 
withdrawing  the  article  referring  to  these  points. 
In  the  course  of  the  negotiation  Mr.  Gallatin  pro 
posed  that  in  case  of  a  future  war  both  nations 
should  engage  never  to  employ  the  savages  as  aux 
iliaries,  but  this  article  does  not  appear.  To  the 
credit  of  civilization,  however,  the  last  article  con 
tained  a  mutual  engagement  to  put  an  end  to  the 
trade  in  slaves.1  On  Christmas  day  the  treaty 
was  signed.  Mr.  Henry  Adams 2  justly  says, 
"  Far  more  than  contemporaries  ever  supposed,  or 
than  is  now  imagined,  the  Treaty  of  Ghent  was 
the  special  work  and  the  peculiar  triumph  of  Mr. 

1  An  agreement  entered  into  in  perfect  faith,  but  which  the 
jealousy  of  the  exercise  of  search  in  any  form  rendered  nugatory 
for  half  a  century. 

2  Life  of  Albert  Gallatin,  p.  546. 


336  ALBERT  GALLAT1N. 

Gallatin."  His  own  correspondence  shows  how 
admirably  he  was  constituted  for  the  nice  work  of 
diplomatic  negotiation.  In  the  self-poise  which  he 
maintained  in  the  most  critical  situations,  the  un 
erring  sagacity  with  which  he  penetrated  the  pur 
poses  of  his  adversaries,  the  address  with  which  he 
soothed  the  passions  and  guided  the  judgments  of 
his  colleagues,  it  is  impossible  to  find  a  single  fault. 
If  he  had  a  fault,  says  his  biographer,  it  was  that 
of  using  the  razor  when  he  would  have  done  bet 
ter  with  the  axe.  But  the  axe  is  not  a  diplomatic 
weapon.  The  simulation  of  temper  may  serve  an 
occasional  purpose,  but  temper  itself  is  a  mistake, 
and  to  Mr.  Gal  latin's  credit  be  it  said,  it  was  a 
mistake  never  committed  by  him  in  the  course 
of  this  long  and  sometimes  painful  negotiation. 
Looking  back  upon  its  shifting  scenes,  it  is  clear 
that  even  the  pertinacity  of  Adams  and  irascibility 
of  Clay  served  to  advance  the  purpose  of  the  mis 
sion.  From  the  first  to  the  last  Mr.  Gallatin  had 
his  own  way,  not  because  it  was  his  own  way,  but 
because  it  was  the  best  way  and  was  so  recognized 
by  the  majority  of  the  commission  at  every  turn 
of  difference.  Fortunately  for  the  interests  of 
peace  the  battle  of  New  Orleans  had  not  yet  been 
fought.  There  seems  a  justice  in  this  final  act  of 
the  war.  The  British  attack  upon  the  Chesapeake l 
was  committed  before  war  had  been  declared. 

1  The  frigate  Chesapeake  was  captured  by  the  British  man-of- 
war  Leopard  in  June,  1807. 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  337 

The  battle  of  New  Orleans  was  fought  a  fortnight 
after  the  Treaty  of  Ghent  was  signed.  The  burn 
ing  of  Washington  was  avenged  by  the  most 
complete  defeat  which  the  British  had  ever  en 
countered  in  their  long  career  of  military  prowess. 

By  his  political  life  Mr.  Gallatin  acquired  an 
American  reputation ;  by  his  management  of  the 
finances  of  the  United  States  he  placed  himself 
among  the  first  political  economists  of  the  day ; 
but  his  masterly  conduct  of  the  Treaty  of  Ghent 
showed  him  the  equal  of  the  best  of  European 
statesmen  on  their  own  peculiar  ground  of  diplo 
macy.  No  one  of  American  birth  has  ever  equalled 
him  in  this  field.  Europeans  recognized  his  pre 
eminent  genius.  Sismondi  praised  him  in  a  pub 
lic  discourse.  Humboldt  addressed  him  as  his 
illustrious  friend.  Madame  de  Stae'l  expressed  to 
him  her  admiration  for  his  mind  and  character. 
Alexander  Baring  gave  him  more  than  admira 
tion,  his  friendship. 

Upon  the  separation  of  the  commissioners,  Mr. 
Gallatin  paid  a  flying  visit  to  Geneva.  His  fame, 
or  "glory,"  to  use  the  words  of  Humboldt,  pre 
ceded  him.  Of  his  old  intimates,  Serre  was  under 
the  sod  in  a  West  Indian  island ;  Badollet  was 
leading  a  quiet  life  at  Vincennes  in  the  Indiana 
Territory,  where  Gallatin  had  obtained  for  him 
an  appointment  in  the  land  office ;  Dumont  was 
in  England.  Of  Gallatin's  family  few  remained. 
But  he  received  the  honors  due  to  him  as  a  Gene- 

22 


338  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

van  who  had  shed  a  lustre  on  his  native  city.  On 
his  way  to  England,  where  he  had  made  an  ap 
pointment  with  his  colleagues  to  attempt  a  com 
mercial  treaty  with  Great  Britain,  he  stopped  at 
Paris.  Here  he  saw  Napoleon,  returned  from 
Elba,  his  star  in  full  blaze  before  its  final  ex 
tinction.  Here  he  heard  in  April  (1815)  of  his 
appointment  by  Madison  as  minister  to  France. 
His  colleagues  also  had  been,  honored  by  similar 
advancements.  Adams  was  transferred  from  Rus 
sia  to  England.  Bayard  was  named  minister  to 
Russia,  but  illness  prevented  his  taking  possession 
of  his  post.  In  April,  Mr.  Gallatin  and  Mr. 
Clay  opened  negotiations  with  Lord  Castlereagh 
in  London,  where  they  were  quickly  joined  by 
Adams.  Lord  Castlereagh  bore  no  malice  against 
Mr.  Gallatin  for  the  treaty.  On  the  contrary,  he 
wrote  of  it  to  Lord  Liverpool  as  "  a  most  auspi 
cious  and  seasonable  event,  and  wished  him  joy  at 
"  being  released  from  the  millstone  of  an  American 
war."  With  Lord  Castlereagh  Mr.  Gallatin  ar 
ranged  in  the  course  of  the  summer  a  convention 
regulating  commercial  intercourse  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain,  the  only  truly 
valuable  part  of  which  was  that  which  abolished 
all  discriminating  duties.  Mr.  Gallatin  consid 
ered  this  concession  as  an  evidence  of  friendly  dis 
position,  and  rightly  judged  that  British  antipathy 
and  prejudice  were  modified,  and  that  in  the 
future  friendly  relations  would  be  preserved  and  a 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  339 

rapture  avoided.  Beyond  this,  there  was  little 
gained.  The  old  irritating  questions  of  impress 
ment  and  blockade  and  the  exclusion  of  the 
United  States  from  the  West  Indies  trade  re 
mained. 

In  July  Mr.  Gallatin  parted  from  Mr.  Baring 
and  his  London  friends  on  his  homeward  jour 
ney.  From  New  York,  on  September  4,  he  wrote 
Madison,  thanking  him  for  the  appointment  of 
minister  to  France  as  an  "  evidence  of  undimin- 
ished  attachment  and  of  public  satisfaction  for  his 
services  ; "  but  he  still  held  his  acceptance  in  abey 
ance.  To  Jefferson,  two  days  later,  he  had  also 
the  satisfaction  to  say  with  justice,  that  the  char 
acter  of  the  United  States  stood  as  "  high  as  ever 
it  did  on  the  European  continents,  and  higher 
than  ever  it  did  in  Great  Britain ;"  and  that  the 
United  States  was  considered  "  as  the  nation  de 
signed  to  check  the  naval  despotism  of  England." 
To  Jefferson  he  naturally  spoke  of  that  France 
from  which  they  had  drawn  some  of  their  inspira 
tions  and  their  doctrines. 

He  thus  describes  the  condition  of  the  people : 

"The  revolution  (the  political  change  of  1789)  has 
not,  however,  been  altogether  useless.  There  is  a  vis 
ible  improvement  in  the  agriculture  of  the  country  and 
the  situation  of  the  peasantry.  The  new  generation  be 
longing  to  that  class,  freed  from  the  petty  despotism 
of  nobles  and  priests,  and  made  more  easy  in  their  cir 
cumstances  by  the  abolition  of  tithes,  and  the  equaliza- 


340 


ALBERT  GALLATIN. 


tion  of  taxes,  have  acquired  an  independent  spirit,  and 
are  far  superior  to  their  fathers  in  intellect  and  informa 
tion  ;  they  are  not  republicans  and  are  still  too  much 
dazzled  by  military  glory  ;  but  I  think  that  no  monarch 
or  ex-nobles  can  hereafter  oppress  them  long  with  im 
punity." 

And  again,  "  Exhausted,  degraded,  and  oppressed 
as  France  now  is,  I  do  not  despair  of  her  ultimate 
success  in  establishing  her  independence  and  a 
free  form  of  government."  But  it  was  not  till 
half  a  century  later  that  Gambetta,  the  Mirabeau 
of  the  Republic,  led  France  to  the  full  possession 
of  her  material  forces,  and  reestablished  in  their 
original  vigor  the  principles  of  1789.  That  Gal- 
latin  was  not  blinded  by  democratic  prejudices 
appears  in  the  letter  he  wrote  to  Lafayette  after 
Napoleon's  abdication,  in  which  he  said :  "  My 
attachment  to  the  form  of  government  under 
which  I  was  born  and  have  ever  lived  never  made 
me  desirous  that  it  should,  by  way  of  experiment, 
be  applied  to  countries  which  might  be  better  fit 
ted  for  a  limited  monarchy." 

MINISTER  TO   FRANCE. 

Strange  as  it  appears,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
Mr.  Gallatin  was  at  this  time  heartily  weary  of 
political  life,  and  seriously  contemplated  a  perma 
nent  retirement  to  the  banks  of  the  Monongahela. 
He  naturally  enough  declined  a  nomination  to 
Congress,  which  was  tendered  him  by  the  Phila- 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  341 

delphia  district.     His  tastes  were  not  for  the  vio 
lence  and  turbulence  of  the  popular  house. 

Madison  left  him  full  time  to  decide  whether  he 
could  arrange  his  private  affairs  so  as  to  accept 
the  mission  to  Paris.  In  November  he  positively 
declined.  He  considered  the  compensation  as  in 
competent  to  the  support  of  a  minister  in  the 
style  in  which  he  was  expected  to  live.  His  pri 
vate  income  was  at  this  time  about  twenty-five 
hundred  dollars  a  year.  Monroe  pressed  him  earn 
estly  not  to  quit  the  public  service,  but  the  year 
closed  and  Mr.  Gallatin  had  not  made  up  his 
mind.  In  the  situation  of  France,  which  he  con 
sidered  "  would  under  her  present  dynasty  be  for 
some  years  a  vassal  of  her  great  rival,"  he  did  not 
consider  the  mission  important,  and  his  private 
fortune  was  limited  to  a  narrow  competence.  "  I 
do  not  wish,"  he  wrote  to  Monroe,  "  to  accumulate 
any  property.  I  will  not  do  my  family  the  in 
jury  of  impairing  the  little  I  have.  My  health  is 
frail ;  they  may  soon  lose  me,  and  I  will  not  leave 
them  dependent  on  the  bounty  of  others."  But 
being  again  earnestly  pressed,  he  on  January  2, 
1816,  accepted  the  appointment.  To  Jefferson  he 
wrote  that  he  would  not  conceal  '  that  he  did  not 
feel  yet  old  enough  nor  had  philosophy  enough  to 
go  into  retirement  and  abstract  himself  wholly 
from  public  affairs.' 

In  April,  Madison  notified  Mr.  Gallatin  of  Dal- 
las's  probable  retirement  from  the  Treasury,  and 


342  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

offered  him  the  post  if  he  cared  to  return  to  it. 
He  was  perfectly  aware  of  his  supreme  fitness  for 
the  direction  of  the  Treasury,  and  he  declined  with 
reluctance,  because  he  was  disturbed  by  the  sus 
pension  of  specie  payments.  Remembering  Madi 
son's  weakness  in  1812  on  the  subject  of  the 
renewal  of  the  bank  charter,  which  Gallatin  con 
sidered  necessary  in  the  situation  of  the  finances, 
he  could  hardly  have  felt  a  desire  to  return  to 
the  cabinet  in  that  or  indeed  in  any  other  capac 
ity.  He  was  perfectly  conscious  that  as  leader 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  as  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  and  as  negotiator  of  the  Ghent 
treaty,  he  had  brought  into  the  triumvirate  all  its 
practical  statesmanship.  His  short  career  abroad 
had  opened  to  him  a  new  source  of  intellectual 
pleasure.  He  had  earned  a  right  to  some  hours  of 
ease. .  Diplomacy  at  that  period,  when  communi 
cation  was  uncertain  and  difficult,  was  perforce 
less  restricted  than  in  these  latter  days,  when  am 
bassadors  are  little  more  than  foreign  clerks  of  the 
State  Department  without  even  the  freedom  of  a 
chief  of  bureau.  Gallatin  felt  entirely  at  home,  and 
was  happy  in  this  peculiar  sphere.  There  was  no 
time  in  his  life  when  he  would  not  have  gladly 
surrendered  all  political  power  for  the  enjoyment 
of  intellectual  ease,  the  pursuit  of  science,  and  the 
atmosphere  of  society  of  the  higher  order  of  culture 
in  whatever  field.  And  Paris  was  then,  as  it  is 
still,  the  centre  of  intellectual  and  social  civilization. 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  343 

Jefferson  rejoiced  in  Gallatin's  appointment  to 
France,  and  rightly  judged  that  he  would  be  of 
great  service  there.  Of  Louis  XVIII.,  however, 
Jefferson  had  a  poor  opinion.  He  thought  him  i  a 
fool  and  a  bigot,  but,  bating  a  little  duplicity, 
honest  and  meaning  well.'  Jefferson  could  give 
Gallatin  no  letters.  He  had  'no  acquaintances 
left  in  France  ;  some  were  guillotined,  some  fled, 
some  died,  some  are  exiled,  and  he  knew  of  nobody 
left  but  Lafayette.'  With  Destutt  de  Tracy,  an 
intimate  friend  of  Lafayette,  Jefferson  was  in  cor 
respondence.  Indeed,  he  was  engaged  on  the 
translation  of  Tracy's  work  on  political  economy, 
the  best,  in  Jefferson's  opinion,  that  had  ever  ap 
peared.1 

Gallatin  reached  Paris  with  his  family  on  July 
9,  1816,  and  had  an  interview  with  the  Duke  of 
Richelieu,  the  minister  of  Louis  XVIIL,  two  days 
later.  The  conversation  turned  upon  the  sympa 
thy  for  Bonaparte  in  the  United  States,  which 
Richelieu  could  not  understand  ;  but  Gallatin  ex 
plained  that  it  was  not  extended  to  him  as  the 
despot  of  France,  but  as  the  most  formidable 
enemy  of  England.  Richelieu  warned  him  of  the 
prejudices  which  might  be  aroused  against  the 
reigning  family  '  by  ex-kings  and  other  emigrants 
of  the  same  description  '  who  had  lately  removed 
to  the  United  States.  This  was  an  allusion  to  Je- 

1  A  translation  of  this  work,  Economie  Politique,  was  published 
under  Jefferson's  supervision  in  1818. 


844  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

rome,  who  had  fled  from  the  throne  of  Westphalia 
to  the  banks  of  the  Delaware.  The  King  gave  Gal- 
latin  an  audience  on  the  llth,  when  he  presented 
his  credentials.  His  reception  both  by  his  majesty 
and  the  princes  was,  he  wrote  to  Monroe,  "  what 
is  called  gracious."  Louis  the  Eighteenth  was  a 
Bourbon  to  the  ends  of  his  fingers.  He  had  the 
bonhommie  dashed  with  malice  which  characterized 
the  race.  None  could  better  appreciate  than  he 
the  vein  of  good-natured  satire,  the  acquired  tone 
of  French  society,  which  was  to  Mr.  Gallatin  a 
natural  gift.  Mr.  Gallatin  was  not  only  kindly, 
but  familiarly  received  at  court ;  and  at  the  petits 
soupers,  which  were  the  delight  of  the  epicurean 
King,  his  majesty  on  more  than  one  occasion 
shelled  the  crawfish  for  the  youthful  daughter  of 
the  republican  ambassador.  An  anecdote  is  pre 
served  of  the  King's  courteous  malice.  To  a  com 
pliment  paid  Mr.  Gallatin  on  his  French,  the  King 
added,  "  but  I  think  my  English  is  better  than 
yours." 

Gallatin's  first  negotiations  were  to  obtain  in 
demnity  for  the  captures  under  the  Berlin  and 
Milan  decrees  ;  but  although  the  Duke  of  Riche 
lieu  never  for  a  moment  hinted  that  the  govern 
ment  of  the  Restoration  was  not  responsible  for 
the  acts  of  Napoleon,  yet  he  stated  that  the  mass 
of  injuries  for  which  compensation  was  demanded 
by  other  governments  was  so  great  that  indemnity 
must  be  limited  to  the  most  flagrant  cases.  They 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  345 

would  pay  for  vessels  burnt  at  sea,  but  would  go 
no  farther.  In  spite  of  Mr.  Gallatin's  persistency 
no  advance  was  made  in  the  negotiation.  A  mi 
nor  matter  gave  him  some  annoyance.  On  July  4, 
1816,  at  a  public  dinner,  the  postmaster  at  Balti 
more  proposed  a  toast  which,  by  its  disrespect, 
gave  umbrage  to  the  King.  Hyde  de  Neuville, 
the  French  minister  to  the  United  States,  de 
manded  the  dismissal  of  the  offender.  If  our  in 
stitutions  and  habits  as  well  as  public  opinion  had 
not  forbidden  compliance  with  this  request,  the 
dictatorial  tone  of  De  Neuville  was  sufficient  bar. 
Richelieu  could  not  be  made  to  understand  the 
reason  for  the  refusal,  and  while  disclaiming  any 
idea  of  using  force,  said  that  the  government 
would  show  its  dissatisfaction  in  its  own  way. 
This  seemed  to  intimate  an  indefinite  postpone 
ment  of  a  consideration  of  American  demands, 
and  would  have  rendered  Mr.  Gallatin's  further 
residence  useless  as  well  as  unpleasant ;  but 
French  dignity  got  the  better  of  what  Gallatin 
termed,  "  the  sickly  sentimentality  which  existed 
on  the  subject  of  personal  abuse  of  the  King,"  and 
the  insignificant  incident  was  not  allowed  to  in 
terfere  with  friendly  intercourse. 

In  1817  Mr.  Gallatin  was  engaged  not  only  in 
advising  Mr.  Adams  at  London  upon  the  points  of 
a  commercial  treaty  with  Great  Britain,  but  also, 
together  with  Mr.  William  Eustis,  minister  to  the 
Netherlands,  in  a  negotiation  with  that  govern 
ment. 


346  ALBERT  GALLAT1N. 

The  commission  met  at  the  Hague,  Mr.  Gold 
berg  and  Mr.  Van  der  Kemp  representing  Hol 
land.  The  subjects  were  the  treaty  of  1782  be 
tween  the  States-General  of  the  Netherlands  and 
the  United  States,  the  repeal  of  discriminating 
duties,  and  the  participation  of  the  United  States 
in  the  trade  with  the  Dutch  East  Indies.  The 
basis  of  a  treaty  could  not  be  agreed  upon,  and 
the  whole  matter  was  referred  back  to  the  two 
governments,  the  American  commissioners  recom 
mending  to  the  President  a  repeal  of  duties  dis 
criminating  against  vessels  of  the  Netherlands, 
which  would  no  doubt  prevent  future  exaction  of 
extra  tonnage  duties  imposed  on  American  vessels 
by  that  government.  These  negotiations  occupied 
the  late  summer  months.  At  the  end  of  Septem 
ber  Mr.  Gallatin  was  again  at  his  post  in  Paris. 

In  June,  1818,  Mr.  Richard  Rush,  who  owed 
his  introduction  into  public  life  to  Mr.  Gallatin, 
was  appointed  minister  to  England,  Adams  re 
turning  to  the  United  States  to  take  the  port 
folio  of  State  in  President  Monroe's  cabinet. 
Gallatin  was  joined  to  Rush,  for  the  conduct  of 
negotiations  with  Great  Britain,  rendered  nec 
essary  by  the  approaching  expiration  of  the  com 
mercial  convention  of  July  3,  1815,  which  had 
been  limited  to  four  years.  The  general  field  of 
disputed  points  was  again  entered.  It  included 
the  questions  of  impressment,  the  fisheries,  the 
boundaries,  and  indemnity  for  slaves.  The  com- 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  347 

missioners  were  supported  by  a  temper  of  the 
American  people  different  from  that  which  pre 
vailed  when  Jay  and  Gallatin  respectively  under 
took  the  delicate  work  of  negotiation  in  1794  and 
1814.  A  compromise  was  arrived  at,  which  was 
signed  on  October  20, 1818.  The  articles  on  mar 
itime  rights  and  impressment  were  set  aside.  A 
convention  was  made  for  ten  years  in  regard  to 
the  fisheries,  the  northwest  boundary,  and  other 
points,  and  the  commercial  convention  of  1815  was 
renewed.  The  English  claim  to  the  navigation  of 
the  Mississippi  was  finally  disposed  of,  and  the  ar 
ticle  concerning  the  West  India  trade  was  referred 
to  the  President.  The  arrangement  of  the  fishery 
question  disturbed  Mr.  Gallatin,  who  found  him 
self  compelled  to  sign  an  agreement  which  left  the 
United  States  in  a  worse  situation  in  that  respect 
than  before  the  war  of  1812.  But  as  the  British 
courts  would  certainly  uphold  the  construction  by 
their  government  of  the  treaty  of  1783,  our  ves 
sels,  when  seized,  would  be  condemned  and  a  col 
lision  would  immediately  ensue.  This,  and  the 
critical  condition  of  our  Spanish  relations,  left  no 
choice  between  concession  and  war.  A  short  time 
afterward  Lord  Castlereagh  and  the  Duke  of  "vYel- 
lington  expressed  friendly  dispositions,  and  the 
mooted  points  of  impressment  and  the  West  India 
trade  were  considered  by  them  to  be  near  an  ar 
rangement.  The  right  of  British  armed  vessels 
to  examine  American  crews  was  abandoned  in  the 
convention  itself. 


348  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

In  July,  1818,  the  capture  of  Fort  St.  Mark  and 
the  occupation  of  Pensacola  in  Florida  by  Gen 
eral  Jackson  made  some  stir  in  the  quiet  waters  of 
our  foreign  diplomacy.  Uncertain  as  to  whether 
the  act  would  be  disavowed  or  justified  by  the 
American  government,  Mr.  Gallatin  explained  to 
the  European  ministers  that  the  forcible  occupa 
tion  of  the  Spanish  province  was  an  act  of  self- 
defence  and  protection  against  the  Indians,  but 
Richelieu  replied  that  the  United  States  "  had 
adopted  the  game  laws  and  pursued  in  foreign 
ground  what  was  started  in  its  own."  Yet,  to 
the  astonishment  of  Mr.  Gallatin,  Richelieu  was 
moderate  and  friendly  in  language,  and  urged  a 
speedy  amicable  arrangement  of  differences  with 
Spain,  in  whose  affairs  France  took  an  interest, 
and  who  had  asked  her  good  offices.  But  Galla 
tin  at  once  rejected  any  idea  that  the  United 
States  would  join  France  in  any  mediation  be 
tween  Spain  and  her  revolted  colonies.  It  seems 
rather  singular  that,  to  the  suggestion  that  a 
Spanish  prince  might  be  sent  over  to  America  as 
an  independent  monarch,  Gallatin  contented  him 
self  with  expressing  a  doubt  as  to  the  efficacy  of 
such  a  course  to  preserve  their  independence.  Mr. 
Adams  was  informed  that  public  recognition  of 
the  independence  of  the  insurgent  colony  of  Bue 
nos  Ayres  would  shock  the  feelings  and  prejudices 
of  the  French  ministers,  but  that  notwithstanding 
this  displeasure,  France  would  not  join  Spain  in  a 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  349 

war  on  this  account.  England,  however,  would 
see  such  a  war  without  regret,  and  privateers  un 
der  Spanish  commissions  would  instantly  be  fitted 
out,  both  in  France  and  England.  Under  the  ex 
isting  convention  with  Great  Britain  three  hun 
dred  American  vessels  arrived  at  Liverpool  in 
the  first  nine  months  of  1818  from  the  United 
States  and  only  thirty  English,  an  advantage  to 
the  United  States  which  war  would  at  once  de 
stroy.  Russia  also  was  displeased  with  the  recog 
nition  of  the  independence  of  the  Spanish  colo 
nies.  At  the  Congress  of  Aix  la  Chapelle  various 
plans  of  mediation  were  proposed,  but  England 
refusing  to  engage  to  break  off  all  commercial  re 
lations  with  such  of  the  insurgent  colonies  as 
should  reject  the  proposals  agreed  to,  the  whole 
project  was  abandoned.  An  agreement  between 
the  five  great  powers  for  the  suppression  of  the 
slave  trade  was  also  proposed  at  this  Congress, 
but  France  declined  to  recognize  the  right  to  visit 
French  vessels  in  time  of  peace,  and  Russia  mak° 
ing  a  similar  declaration,  this  plan  also  fell  to  the 
ground,  and  even  an  association  against  the  exac 
tions  of  the  Barbary  powers  was  prevented  by 
jealousy  of  the  naval  preponderance  of  Great 
Britain. 

While  Mr.  Gallatin  was  still  actively  engaged 
in  an  endeavor  to  put  our  commercial  relations 
with  France  on  a  satisfactory  basis,  and  negotiat 
ing  with  M.  Pasquier,  the  new  French  minister 


350  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

for  foreign  affairs,  both  with  regard  to  indemnities 
for  captures  and   the  new  Spanish   relations   in 
volved   in  the  cession  of   Florida  to  the   United 
States,  a  serious  trouble  arose  in  which  Mr.  Gal- 
latin   and    Mr.  Adams  were  at  direct  difference. 
In  the  spring  of  1821  a  French  vessel,  the  Apol- 
lon,  was  seized  on  the   St.  Mary's  river,  on  the 
Spanish  side,  and  condemned  for  violation  of  the 
United  States  navigation  laws.     Mr.  Adams  sus 
tained  the  seizure  and  Mr.  Gallatin  did  his  best 
to  defend  it,  on  the  ground  that  the  place  where 
the  vessel  was  seized  was  embraced  in  the  occupa 
tion  of  the  United  States.     To  Adams  he  wrote 
that  the  doctrine  assumed  by  the  State  Depart 
ment  with  respect  to  the  non-ratified  treaty  with 
Spain  was  not  generally  admitted  in  Europe,  and 
that  "  he  thought  it  equally  dangerous  and  incon 
sistent  with  our  general  principles  to  assert  that 
we  had  a   right  to   seize  a  vessel  for  any  cause 
short  of  piracy  in  a  place  where  we  did  not  pre 
viously   claim    jurisdiction."      Mr.   Gallatin    suc 
ceeded  in  satisfying  M.  Pasquier  that  the  seizure 
was  not  in  violation  of  the  law  of  nations  or  an 
insult  to  the  French  flag,  and  the  captain  having 
instituted  a  suit  for  redress  against  the  seizing  of 
ficers,  the  French  minister  allowed  the  matter  to 
rest.     Adams,  however,  was  indignant  at  having 
his  arguments  set  aside.     He  complained  of  it  to 
Calhoun,  and    asked  what    Mr.   Gallatin    meant. 
Calhoun    answered    that    perhaps    it    was   "the 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  351 

of  opinion."  But  when  Adams  got  to  his 
diary,  which  was  the  safety-valve  of  his  ill-tem 
per,  he  se,t  a  black  mark  against  Mr.  Gallatin's 
name  in  these  words :  "  Gallatin  is  a  man  of  first- 
rate  talents,  conscious  and  vain  of  them,  and 
f  mortified  in  his  ambition,  checked  as  it  has  been, 
after  attaining  the  last  step  to  the  summit ;  timid 
in  great  perils,  tortuous  in  his  paths  ;  born  in  Eu 
rope,  disguising  and  yet  betraying  a  superstitious 
prejudice  of  European  superiority  of  intellect,  and 
holding  principles  pliable  to  circumstances,  occa 
sionally  mistaking  the  left  for  the  right  handed 
wisdom."  Against  this  judgment,  Gallatin's  esti 
mate  of  Adams  may  be  here  set  down.  It  was 
expressed  to  his  intimate  friend  Badollet  in  1824  : 
"  John  Q.  Adams  is  a  virtuous  man,  whose  tem 
per,  which  is  not  the  best,  might  be  overlooked ; 
he  has  very  great  and  miscellaneous  knowledge, 
and  he  is  with  his  pen  a  powerful  debater;  but  he 
wants,  to  a  deplorable  degree,  that  most  essential 
quality,  a  sound  and  correct  judgment.  Of  this  I 
have  had  in  my  official  connection  and  intercourse 
with  him  complete  and  repeated  proofs  ;  and  al 
though  he  may  be  useful  when  controlled  and 
checked  by  others,  he  ought  never  to  be  trusted 
with  a  place  where,  unrestrained,  his  errors  might 
be  fatal  to  the  country."  Crawford  complained 
of  the  difficulty  he  encountered  in  the  cabinet  of 
softening  the  asperities  which  invariably  predomi 
nated  in  the  official  notes  of  the  State  Department 


352  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

while  under  Adams's  direction,  and  said  that,  had 
they  been  allowed  to  remain  as  originally  drafted, 
the  government  would  have  been  "  unembarrassed 
by  diplomatic  relations  with  more  than  one 
power."  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  there 
was  no  love  lost  between  Adams  and  Crawford  — 
political  rivals  and  not  personal  friends. 

The  commercial  negotiations,  and  the  discussion 
of  French  pretensions  under  the  eighth  article  of 
the  Louisiana  treaty,  opened  with  M.  Pasquier, 
were  continued  with  the  Vicomte  de  Montmor- 
ency,  who  succeeded  him  as  minister  of  foreign 
affairs.  In  September,  1821,  Mr.  Gallatin  had 
communicated  to  Mr.  Adams  his  intention  of  re 
turning  home  in  the  spring  ;  but  there  appearing 
a  chance  of  success  in  the  negotiation  of  a  treaty, 
he  wrote  in  February,  1822,  to  President  Monroe 
that  if  no  successor  had  been  appointed,  he  was 
desirous  to  remain  some  time  longer.  He  was 
loath  to  return  without  having  succeeded  in  any 
one  subject  intrusted  to  his  care.  Meanwhile 
Mr.  Adams  and  M.  de  Neuville,  the  French 
minister,  had  been  busy  in  the  United  States.  A 
commercial  convention  was  signed  at  Washington 
on  June  24,  1822.  Concerning  this  agreement 
Mr.  Gallatin  wrote  to  Adams  that  the  terms  were 
much  more  favorable  to  France  than  he  had  been 
led  to  presume  would  be  acceded  to,  and  more  so 
than  had  been  hoped  for  by  the  French  govern 
ment.  He  nevertheless  expressed  the  wish  that, 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  353 

as  it  had  been  signed,  it  should  be  ratified,  in  an 
ticipation  that  the  superior  activity  of  our  ship 
owners  and  seamen  would  enable  America  to  stand 
the  competition. 

In  January,  1823,  Montmorency  resigned  and 
was  succeeded  by  M.  de  Chateaubriand.  The 
change  of  ministers  made  no  change  in  the 
French  persistence  in  connecting  the  discussion 
of  the  American  claims  with  that  of  the  eighth 
article  of  the  Louisiana  treaty,  an  arrangement 
to  which  Mr.  Gallatin  would  not  consent.  As  a 
last  resort  he  so  informed  M.  de  Chateaubriand, 
but  receiving  an  unsatisfactory  answer  he  con 
cluded  that  there  was  at  that  time  no  disposition 
in  France  to  do  us  justice  ;  and  as  his  protracted 
stay  could  be  of  no  service  to  the  United  States, 
he  determined  to  return  home  in  the  course  of  the 
spring.  In  April  he  received  leave  of  absence 
from  the  President.  On  May  13  he  had  a  final 
conference  with  Chateaubriand,  in  which  he  could 
get  no  promise  of  any  redress,  but  did  obtain  the 
explicit  declaration  that  France  would  in  no  man 
ner  interfere  in  American  questions. 

Mr.  Gallatin  took  passage  at  Havre,  and  arrived 
in  New  York  on  June  24,  1823.  His  political 
friends,  especially  Crawford,  were  eager  for  his 
return.  Crawford  wished  him  to  stand  for  vice- 
president  in  the  coming  presidential  campaign. 
After  a  short  visit  to  Washington  he  went  to  his 
home  at  New  Geneva.  The  real  value  of  perfect 


354  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

public  service,  or  indeed  of  any  service,  is  only 
appreciated  when  it  ceases,  and  friction  takes  the 
place  of  smooth  and  noiseless  order.  Hardly  was 
Mr.  Gallatin  settled  at  Friendship  Hill  when  a 
letter  from  President  Monroe  (October  15)  ar 
rived,  urging  him  to  return  to  Paris,  if  only  for 
the  winter,  or  until  the  crisis  brought  on  by  the 
rupture  between  France  and  Spain  should  be 
over.  Mr.  Gallatin  replied,  that  the  deranged 
state  of  his  private  affairs  rendered  his  return  to 
Europe  extremely  improbable. 

Goethe  says  in  his  "  Elective  Affinities  "  that 
we  cannot  escape  the  atmosphere  we  breathe. 
The  natural  atmosphere  of  Mr.  Gallatin  was  public 
life.  In  November,  1825,  Mr.  Clay,  Adams's  Sec 
retary  of  State,  offe«ed,  and,  meeting  a  refusal, 
pressed  upon  Mr.  Gallatin  the  post  of  representa 
tive  of  the  United  States  at  the  proposed  Congress 
of  American  Republics  at  Panama.  Mr.  Clay  was 
right  in  considering  it  the  most  important  mission 
ever  sent  from  the  United  States,  and  had  Mr.  Gal 
latin  accepted  it,  relations  with  these  interesting 
countries  might  have  been  improved  to  an  immeas 
urable  degree  of  happiness  to  them,  and  of  benefit 
to  both  continents.  But  his  family  would  not 
hear  of  his  exposure  in  the  fatal  climate  of  the 
American  Isthmus.  Moreover,  he  pleaded  his  ig 
norance  of  the  Spanish  language  as  a  sufficient 
excuse  for  declining  the  mission,  —  an  example 
which  has  not  been  followed  in  later  days. 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  355 

MINISTER   TO  ENGLAND. 

In  the  spring  of  1826  Mr.  Rufus  King,  who 
had  taken  the  place  of  Mr.  Rush  at  London,  that 
gentleman  having  been  called  to  the  Treasury  by 
President  Adams,  fell  ill,  and  requested  the  assist 
ance  of  an  extraordinary  envoy.  Mr.  Gallatin 
accepted  the  mission.  Before  his  nomination 
reached  the  Senate  Mr.  King's  resignation  was 
received  and  accepted.  President  Adams  wishing 
to  intrust  Mr.  Gallatin  alone  with  the  pending 
negotiations,  and  unwilling  to  make  the  two  nom 
inations  of  Minister  and  Envoy,  proposed  to  Mr. 
Gallatin  to  take  the  post  of  minister,  with  powers 
to  negotiate,  and  liberty  to  return  when  the  ne 
gotiations  should  be  finished.  Personal  expenses 
at  London  were  so  great  that  the  post  of  resident 
minister  was  ruinous.  Mr.  Adams  promised  Mr. 
Gallatin  carte  llanclie  as  to  his  instructions.  But 
instead  of  latitude  and  discretionary  power  he 
received  at  New  York  voluminous  directions  which 
he  engaged  faithfully  to  execute,  while  regretting 
that  they  had  not  been  made  known  to  him  sooner. 
Nevertheless,  in  the  three  days  which  intervened 
before  his  sailing,  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Clay  a  lucid 
statement  of  the  points  in  issue,  and  mentioned 
the  modifications  he  desired.  The  points  were,  1, 
the  northeastern  boundary.  Upon  this  he  was 
only  authorized  to  obtain  a  reference  of  the  sub 
ject  to  a  direct  negotiation  at  Washington.  He 


356  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

asked  consent,  in  case  it  should  be  desirable,  to 
open  a  negotiation  on  this  point  at  London. 
Should  Great  Britain  refuse  to  open  a  negotia 
tion  at  either  place,  or  to  agree  to  a  joint  state 
ment,  then  he  was  not  to  be  bound  to  propose  an 
immediate  reference  to  a  third  power.  2.  The 
boundary  west  of  the  Stony  Mountains.  The  in 
structions  limited  British  continuance  on  settle 
ments  south  of  the  49th  parallel  to  five  years. 
Mr.  Gallatin  thought  this  insufficient,  and  pro 
posed  fifteen  years.  3.  The  St.  Lawrence  naviga 
tion,  and  the  intercourse  with  Canada,  as  to  which 
he  suggested  alternate  plans.  4.  Colonial  trade, 
on  which  he  asked  precise  instructions  as  to  what 
was  desired.  To  the  President  he  complained  of 
his  instructions  as  '  of  the  most  peremptory  nature, 
leaving  no  discretion  on  unimportant  points,  and 
making  of  him  a  mere  machine,'  and  he  requested 
that  it  be  officially  announced  to  him  « that  the  in 
structions  were  intended  to  guide  but  not  abso 
lutely  to  bind  him.'  He  was' not  afraid  of  incur 
ring  responsibility  where  discretion  was  allowed, 
but  he  would  not  do  it  in  the  face  of  strict  and 
positive  injunctions.  Mr.  Gallatin  sailed  from 
New  York  with  his  wife  and  daughter  July  1, 
1826.  Mr.  William  Beach  Lawrence,  then  a 
youth,  accompanied  him  as  his  secretary.  They 
reached  London  on  August  7. 

Canning  was  then  at  the  head  of  the  foreign 
office,  and  the  temper  of  the  ministry  was  not  that 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  357 

of  Castlereagh  and  Wellington.  Mr.  Gallatin  did 
not  like  French  diplomacy,  nor  did  he  admire  that 
of  England.  He  wrote  to  his  son  :  '  Some  of  the 
French  statesmen  occasionally  say  what  is  not 
true ;  here  (in  London)  they  conceal  the  truth.' 
But  while  in  diplomacy  he  found  strength  and  the 
opinion  of  that  strength  to  be  the  only  weapons, 
he  felt  satisfaction  that  the  country  could  support 
its  rights  and  pretensions  by  assuming  a  different 
attitude.  In  the  course  of  the  negotiations  Mr. 
Gallatin  learned  that  one  of  the  King's  ministers 
had  complained  of  the  tone  of  United  States  diplo 
macy  towards  England,  and  had  added,  that  it 
was  time  to  show  that  it  was  felt  and  resented. 
No  such  fault  could  attach  to  the  correspondence 
of  Mr.  Rush  and  Mr.  King,  or  to  that  of  Mr.  Clay, 
which  Mr.  Addington  had  found  quite  acceptable ; 
but  it  was  ascribed  to  Mr.  Adams's  instructions  to 
Mr.  Rush,  printed  by  order  of  the  Senate.  Mr. 
Gallatin  later  discovered  that  the  offensive  re 
marks  were  in  Baylies'  report  on  the  territory  west 
of  the  Stony  Mountains.  Mr.  Gallatin  explained 
the  independence  of  the  House  committees  in  the 
United  States,  but  as  a  diplomatist  he  felt  the 
need  of  a  concert  between  the  Executive  and  the 
committees  of  Congress  in  all  that  concerns  for 
eign  relations.  Government,  after  all,  is  a  complex 
science. 

The  simple  directness  with  which  Mr.  Gallatin 
dealt  with  Lord  Liverpool  could  not  serve  with  a 


358  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

man  of  Canning's  disposition.  Mr.  Gallatin  did 
not  fail  to  bring  to  bear  the  pressure  of  a  possible 
change  in  the  relations  of  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain,  which  might  arise  from  the  war 
which  seemed  imminent  between  that  power  and 
Spain.  The  new  questions  of  Cuba,  and  the  old 
habit  of  impressment,  might  at  once  bring  the 
United  States  into  collision  with  England.  But 
the  war  did  not  take  place,  and  the  close  of  the 
year  found  the  negotiations  not  far  advanced. 
Only  the  convention  of  1815  would  no  doubt  be 
renewed.  He  asked  for  further  instructions  on 
that  subject,  the  joint  occupancy  of  western  terri 
tory,  and  impressments,  all  of  which  he  hoped  to 
arrange  in  the  spring  and  summer,  and  return 
home.  Mr.  Lawrence  he  found  to  be  a  secretary 
more  capable  in  the  current  business  of  the  lega 
tion  than  any  of  his  predecessors.  Mr.  Gallatin 
could  safely  leave  him  there  as  charg£  d'affaires. 

In  December,  Chateaubriand  used  in  the  House 
of  Peers  the  words  which  Mr.  Gallatin  had  said 
to  him,  4  that  England  could  not  take  Cuba  with 
out  making  war  on  the  United  States,  and  that  she 
knew  it.'  Mr.  Gallatin  so  informed  Adams,  and 
added,  that  France  would  no  doubt  agree,  as 
Chateaubriand  would  have  agreed,  to  a  tripartite 
instrument  if  England  were  of  the  same  opinion. 

In  March,  1827,  Adams  warned  Gallatin  that 
the  sudden  and  unexpected  determination  of  Great 
Britain  to  break  off  all  negotiation  concerning  the 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  359 

colonial  trade,  and  the  contemporaneous  interdic 
tion  of  the  vessels  of  the  United  States  from  all 
British  ports  in  the  West  Indies,  had  put  a  new 
face  on  matters.  A  renewal  of  the  convention  of 
1818  would  probably  be  agreed  to  by  the  Senate, 
but  rio  concession  in  the  form  of  a  treaty  would 
be  acceptable.  His  words  were  emphatic.  "  One 

inch  of  ground  yielded  on  the  northwest  coast, 

one  step  backward  from  the  claim  to  the  naviga 
tion  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  —  one  hair's  breadth  of 
compromise  upon  the  article  of  impressment 
would  be  certain  to  meet  the  reprobation  of  the 
Senate."  In  this  temper  of  parties,  Adams  added, 
"  all  we  can  hope  to  accomplish  will  be  to  adjourn 
controversies  which  we  cannot  adjust,  and  say  to 
Britain  as  the  Abbd  Bernis  said  to  Cardinal 
Fleuri :  c  Monseigneur  j'  attendrai.'  " 

But  changes  now  occurred  in  the  British  Min 
istry :   Lord  Liverpool  died  in  February,  1827 

Mr.  Canning  in  the  following  August.  Lord  God- 
erich  became  Prime  Minister.  The  new  adminis 
tration  returned  from  Canning's  eccentric  course 
to  the  old  and  quiet  path.  The  commercial  con 
vention  of  1815  was  renewed  indefinitely,  each 
party  being  at  liberty  to  abrogate  it  at  twelve 
months'  notice.  The  joint  occupancy  of  the  Ore 
gon  Territory,  agreed  to  in  1818,  was  continued  in 
a  similar  manner.  On  September  29  a  conven 
tion  was  signed,  referring  the  northeast  boundary 
to  the  arbitration  of  a  friendly  sovereign.  Mr. 


860  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

Gallatin  believed  that,  had  Canning  lived,  he 
would  have  opened  a  negotiation  on  the  subject 
of  impressment.  Huskisson  considered  that  '  the 
right,  even  if  well  founded,  was  one  the  exercise 
of  which  was  intolerable,  but  that  this  was  not  the 
time  to  take  up  the  subject.'  The  new  British  ad 
ministration  did  not  dare  to  encounter  the  clamor 
of  the  navy,  the  opposition  of  the  Tories,  and  the 
pride  of  the  nation  on  this  question. 

Having  accomplished  all  that  was  practicable, 
completed  all  the  current  business,  and  leaving  the 
British  government  in  a  better  temper  than  he 
found  it,  Mr.  Gallatin  returned  to  the  United 
States,  reaching  New  York  on  November  29, 
1827.  Nothing  remained  in  foreign  relations  in 
respect  to  which  Mr.  Gallatin  felt  that  he  could 
be  of  much  use  except  the  northeast  boundary. 
In  a  letter  of  congratulation  to  Mr.  Gallatin  on 
his  arrival,  President  Adams  made  ample  amends 
for  all  his  harsh  j  udgments,  expressed  or  withheld. 
The  three  conventions  were  entirely  satisfactory 
to  him.  Of  the  negotiation  he  said,  in  words  as 
graceful  as  warm,  "  I  shall  feel  most  sensibly  the 
loss  of  your  presence  at  London,  and  can  form 
no  more  earnest  wish  than  that  your  successor 
may  acquire  the  same  influence  of  reason  and  good 
temper  which  you  did  exercise,  and  that  it  may 
be  applied  with  as  salutary  effect  to  the  future 
discussions  between  the  two  governments."  Dur 
ing  his  visit  to  London  Mr.  Gallatin  was  over- 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  361 

whelmed  with  civilities.  Canning  was  courteous 
to  a  degree,  and  rarely  a  day  passed  that  the 
American  ambassador  had  not  to  choose  between 
half  a  dozen  invitations  to  dinner.  At  the  house 
of  the  Russian  minister,  the  Count  de  Lieven,  he 
was  always  welcome,  and  the  Countess  de  Lieven, 
the  autocrat  of  foreign  society  in  London,  with 
out  whose  pass  no  stranger  could  cross  the  sacred 
threshold  of  Almack's,  was  his  fast  friend.  To 
each  circle  he  carried  that  which  each  most  prized. 
Whether  the  conversation  turned  upon  government 
or  science,  the  dry  figures  of  finance,  or  the  more 
genial  topic  of  diplomatic  intrigue,  Mr.  Gallatin 
was  its  easy  master,  and  his  words  never  fell  on 
inattentive  ears. 

With  this  mission  to  London  Mr.  Gallatin's  di 
plomatic  service  closed.  He  would  have  accepted 
the  French  mission  in  1834,  and  so  informed  Van 
Buren,  but  General  Jackson,  who  was  President, 
had  his  own  plans,  and  4  ran  his  machine '  without 
consulting  other  than  his  own  prejudices  or  whims. 
But  although  Mr.  Gallatin  was  no  longer  in  the 
field  of  diplomacy,  his  counsels  were  eagerly  sought. 
The  northeastern  boundary  was  a  troublesome  ques 
tion,  indeed  in  the  new  phases  of  American  poli 
tics  an  imminent  danger.  The  extension  of  the 
commercial  relations  of  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States  rendered  it  imperative  that  no  point 
of  dispute  should  remain  which  could  be  deter* 


362  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

mined.  For  two  years  after  his  return  from  Eng 
land,  Mr.  Gallatin  was  employed  in  the  prepara 
tion  of  an  argument  to  be  laid  before  the  King 
of  the  Netherlands,  who  had  been  selected  as  the 
arbiter  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain  on  the  boundary.  The  King  undertook  to 
press  a  conventional  line,  which  the  United  States, 
not  being  bound  to  accept,  refused.  In  1839  Mr. 
Gallatin  prepared,  and  put  before  the  world,  a 
statement  of  the  facts  in  the  case.  This,  revised, 
together  with  the  speech  of  Mr.  Webster,  a  copy 
of  the  Jay  treaty,  and  eight  maps,  he  published  at 
his  own  expense  in  1840. 

At  this  time  conflicts  on  the  Maine  frontier 
brought  the  subject  up  in  a  manner  not  to  be 
ignored.  Popular  feeling  was  at  high  pitch.  In 
this  condition  of  affairs  Alexander  Baring,  who 
had  been  raised  to  the  peerage  as  Lord  Ashburton, 
was  sent  to  America  on  a  mission  of  friendship 
and  peace.  As  a  young  man  he  had  listened  to 
the  debate  on  Jay's  treaty  in  1795.  He  was  now 
to  be  received  by  Webster  in  Washington  in  the 
same  spirit  in  which  Grenville  received  Jay  in 
London,  when  it  was  mutually  understood  that 
they  should  discuss  the  matter  as  friends  and  not 
as  diplomatists,  and  leave  their  articles  as  records 
of  agreement,  not  as  compromises  of  discord.  Gal 
latin  eagerly  awaited  the  arrival  of  his  old  friend, 
and  was  grievously  disappointed  when  contrary 
winds  blew  the  frigate  which  carried  him  to  An- 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  .  363 

napolis.  Letters  were  immediately  exchanged ; 
Lord  Ashburton  engaging  before  he  left  the  coun 
try  to  find  Gallatin  out,  and,  as  he  said,  to  "  draw 
a  little  wisdom  from  the  best  well."  After  the 
treaty  was  signed,  Lord  Ashburton  went  from 
Washington  to  New  York,  and  the  old  friends 
met  once  more:  Mr.  Gallatin  was  in  his  82d 
year,  but  in  the  full  possession  of  his  faculties  -9 
Lord  Ashburton  in  his  68th  year :  a  memorable 
meeting  of  two  great  men,  whose  lives  had  much  in 
common ;  the  one  the  foremost  banker  of  England, 
the  other  the  matchless  financier  of  America ;  and 
to  this  sufficient  honor  was  added  for  each  the 
singular  merit  of  having  negotiated  for  his  country 
the  most  important  treaty  in  its  relation  to  the 
other  since  the  separation  of  1783,  —  Mr.  Gal 
latin,  the  Treaty  of  Ghent,  which  gave  peace  to 
America  ;  Lord  Ashburton,  that  treaty  which  is 
known  by  his  name  and  which  secured  peace  to 
Great  Britain. 

In  1846  Mr.  Gallatin  rendered  his  last  diplo 
matic  service  by  the  publication  of  a  pamphlet  on 
the  Oregon  question,  which  was  then  as  threaten 
ing  as  that  of  the  northeastern  boundary  had 
been.  This  admirable  exposition,  which  put  be 
fore  the  people  as  well  as  negotiators  the  precise 
merits  of  the  controversy,  powerfully  contributed 
to  the  ultimate  peaceful  settlement. 

Still  once  more  Mr.  Gallatin  threw  his  authori 
tative  words  into  the  scale  of  justice.  His  last  ap- 


364  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

pearance  in  public  had  been  when  he  presided  on 
April  24,  1844,  at  a  meeting  in  New  York  city  to 
protest  against  the  annexation  of  Texas.  He  then 
held  that  the  resolution  of  the  House  declaring  the 
treaty  of  annexation  between  the  United  States  of 
America  and  the  Republic  of  Texas  to  be  the  fun 
damental  law  of  union  between  them,  without  and 
against  the  consent  of  the  Senate,  was  a  direct  and 
undisguised  usurpation  of  power  and  a  violation  of 
the  Constitution.  In  the  storm  of  opposition  he 
lifted  his  feeble  voice  in  condemnation  of  the  vio 
lation  of  treaties,  and  the  disregard  of  the  sacred 
obligations  of  mankind.  "  I  am  highly  gratified," 
were  his  final  words,  "  I  am  highly  gratified  that 
the  last  public  act  of  a  long  life  should  have  been 
that  of  bearing  testimony  against  this  outrageous 
attempt.  It  is  indeed  a  consolation  that  my  al 
most  extinguished  voice  has  been  on  this  occasion 
raised  in  defence  of  liberty,  of  justice,  and  of  our 
country."  Of  the  war  with  Mexico,  he  was  wont 
to  say,  "that  it  was  the  only  blot  upon  the  es 
cutcheon  of  the  United  States."  Aged  as  he  was, 
he  would  not  rest  until  he  had  made  his  last  ap 
peal  for  peace  with  Mexico.  He  also  prepared 
supplementary  essays  on  war  expenses :  the  first 
of  these  was  published  in  1847,  the  second  in 
1848.  For  months  all  his  faculties,  all  his  feelings 
were  absorbed  in  this  one  subject.  These  pam 
phlets  were  widely  circulated  by  the  friends  of 
peace.  The  venerable  sage  had  the  comfort  of 


IN  DIPLOMACY.  365 

knowing  that  his  words  were  not  in  vain.     Peace 
with  Mexico  was  signed  on  February  2,  1848. 

Mr.  Gallatin  was  no  believer  in  the  doctrine  of 
'manifest  destiny,' — the  policy  of  bringing  all 
North  America  into  the  occupation  of  a  race  speak 
ing  the  same  language,  and  under  a  single  govern 
ment.  On  February  16,  1848,  before  news  of  the 
signature  of  the  treaty  at  Guadalupe  Hidalgo,  by 
Mr.  Trist,  the  American  negotiator,  was  known  in 
New  York,  Mr.  Gallatin  condemned  this  idea  in  a 
remarkable  passage,  in  a  letter  to  Garrett  Davis : 

"  What  shall  be  said  of  the  notion  of  an  empire  ex 
tending  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  and  from  the 
North  Pole  to  the  Equator  ?  Of  the  destiny  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  of  its  universal  monarchy  over  the 
whole  of  North  America  ?  Now,  I  will  ask,  which  is 
the  portion  of  the  globe  that  has  attained  the  highest 
degree  of  civilization  and  even  of  power  —  Asia,  with 
its  vast  empires  of  Turkey,  India,  and  China,  or  Europe 
divided  into  near  twenty  independent  sovereignties  ? 
Other  powerful  causes  have  undoubtedly  largely  contrib 
uted  to  that  result ;  but  this,  the  great  division  into  ten 
or  twelve  distinct  languages,  must  not  be  neglected.  But 
all  these  allegations  of  superiority  of  race  and  destiny 
neither  require  nor  deserve  any  answer.  They  are  but 
pretences  under  which  to  disguise  ambition,  cupidity,  or 
silly  vanity." 

The  justice  of  these  reflections  was  assuredly 
borne  out  by  the  experience  of  history,  but  mani 
fest  destiny  takes  no  account  of  past  lessons. 


366  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

Before  these  lines  of  Mr.  Gallatin's  were  penned, 
on  January  19,  1848,  gold  was  discovered  in  Cali 
fornia.  The  announcement  startled  the  world 
and  opened  a  new  era,  not  only  to  Europe,  but  to 
mankind.  Extending  the  metallic  basis,  which  no 
man  better  than  Mr.  Gallatin  recognized  and  held 
to  be  the  true  medium  of  money  transactions,  it 
postponed  for  a  half  century  the  inevitable  conflict 
between  capital  and  labor,  the  first  outbreaks  of 
which  in  Europe  had  been  with  difficulty  sup 
pressed,  when  the  news  of  good  tidings  gave  prom 
ise  of  unexpected  relief.  Credit  revived,  new  en 
terprises  of  colossal  magnitude  were  undertaken, 
and  the  demand  for  labor  quickly  exceeded  the 
supply.  Emigration  to  America  rose  to  incredible 
proportions.  Had  Mr.  Gallatin  lived,  he  would 
have  found  new  elements  to  be  weighed  in  his  nice 
balance  of  probabilities.  He  would  no  longer,  as 
in  1831,  have  been  compelled  to  say  that  "  specie 
is  a  foreign  product,"  but  would  have  given  to 
us  inestimable  advice  as  to  the  proper  use  to  be 
made  of  the  vast  sums  taken  out  from  our  own 
soil.  He  would  have  been  also  brought  to  face 
the  ethnologic  problem  of  a  continent  inhabited  by 
a  single  race,  not  Anglo-Saxon,  nor  Teutonic,  nor 
yet  Latin,  but  a  composite  race  in  which  all  these 
will  be  merged  and  blended ;  a  new  American 
race  which,  springing  from  a  broader  surface, 
shall  rise  to  higher  summits  of  intellectual  power 
and,  with  a  greater  variety  of  natural  qualities, 


JN  DIPLOMACY.  367 

achieve  excellence  in  more  numerous  ways.  This 
vision  was  denied  to  Mr.  Gallatin.  He  died  at 
the  threshold  of  the  new  era  —  of  the  golden  age. 
Four  decades  have  not  passed  since  his  death,  and 
the  United  States  has  taken  from  her  soil  a  value 
of  over  fifteen  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  in  gold 
and  silver,  more  than  a  third  of  the  total  amount 
estimated  by  Mr.  Gallatin  as  the  store  of  Europe  in 
1831 ;  and  has  also  added  to  her  population,  by  im 
migration  alone,  ten  millions  of  people,  of  whom 
but  a  small  proportion  are  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CANDIDATE  FOR  THE  VICE-PRESIDENCY. 

DURING  the  twelve  years  that  Mr.  Gallatin  was 
in  the  Treasury  he  was  continually  looking  for 
some  man  who  could  take  his  place  in  that  of 
fice,  and  aid  in  the  direction  of  national  politics ; 
to  use  his  own  words,  "  who  could  replace  Mr. 
Jefferson,  Mr.  Madison,  and  himself."  Brecken- 
ridge  of  Kentucky  only  appeared  and  died.  The 
eccentricities  of  John  Randolph  unfitted  him  for 
leadership.  William  H.  Crawford  of  Georgia, 
Monroe's  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  alone  filled 
Gallatin's  expectations.  To  a  powerful  mind 
Crawford  "united  a  most  correct  judgment  and 
an  inflexible  integrity.  Unfortunately  he  was 
neither  indulgent  nor  civil,  and,  consequently,  was 
unpopular."  Andrew  Jackson,  Gallatin  said, 
"  was  an  honest  man,  and  the  idol  of  the  worship 
pers  of  military  glory,  but  from  incapacity,  mili 
tary  habits,  and  habitual  disregard  of  laws  and 
constitutional  provisions,  entirely  unfit  for  tire  of 
fice  of  president."  John  C.  Calhoun  he  looked 
upon  as  "  a  smart  fellow,  one  of  the  first  amongst 
second-rate  men,  but  of  lax  political  principles 


CANDIDATE  FOR  THE   VICE-PRESIDENCY.    369 

and  an  inordinate  ambition,  not  over-delicate  in 
the  means  of  satisfying  itself."  Clay  he  consid 
ered  to  be  a  man  of  splendid  talents  and  a  generous 
mind.  John  Quincy  Adams  to  be  '  wanting  to 
a  deplorable  degree  in  that  most  essential  qual 
ity,  a  sound  and  correct  judgment.' 

The  contest  lay  between  Adams  and  Crawford. 
Crawford  was  the  choice  of  Jefferson  and  Madison 
as  well  as  of  Gailatin.  The  principles  of  the  Re 
publican  party  had  so  changed,  that  Nathaniel 
Macon  could  say  in  1824,  in  reply  to  a  request 
from  Mr.  Gailatin  to  take  part  in  a  caucus  for  the 
purpose  of  forwarding  Mr.  Crawford's  nomination, 
that  there  were  "  not  five  members  of  Congress 
who  entertained  the  opinions  which  those  did  who 
brought  Mr.  Jefferson  into  power."  But  Macon 
was  of  the  Brutus  stamp  of  politicians  ;  of  that 
stern  cast  of  mind  which  does  not  4  alter  when  it 
alteration  finds  or  bend  with  the  remover  to  re 
move,'  and  held  yielding  to  the  compulsion  of  cir 
cumstances  to  be  an  abandonment  of  principle. 

Jefferson  still  held  the  consolidation  of  power 
to  be  the  chief  danger  of  the  country,  and  the 
barrier  of  state  rights,  great  and  small,  to  be  its 
only  protection  even  against  the  Supreme  Court. 
Gailatin  took  broader  ground,  and  found  encour 
agement  in  the  excellent  working  of  universal 
suffrage  in  the  choice  of  representatives  to  legis 
lative  bodies.  But  he  was  opposed  to  the  exten 
sion  of  the  principle  to  ;nunicipal  officers  having 

24 


370  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

the  application  of  the  proceeds  of  taxes,  forgetting 
that  universal  suffrage  is  the  lever  by  which  capi 
tal  is  moved  to  educate  labor  and  relieve  it  from 
the  burthens  of  injury,  disease,  and  physical  in 
capacity  at  the  expense  of  the  whole.  Without 
stopping  to  argue  these  debateable  questions,  Mr. 
Gallatin,  with  practical  statesmanship,  determined 
to  maintain  in  power  the  only  agency  by  which 
he  could  at  all  shape  the  political  future,  and  he 
threw  himself  into  the  canvass  with  zeal. 

Crawford  had  unfortunately  been  stricken  with 
paralysis,  and  the  choice  of  a  vice-president  be 
came  a  matter  of  grave  concern.  Mr.  Gallatin 
was  selected  to  take  this  place  on  the  ticket.  To 
this  tender  he  replied,  that  he  did  not  want  the 
office,  but  would  dislike  to  be  proposed  and  not 
elected,  and  he  honestly  felt  that  as  a  foreigner 
and  a  residuary  legatee  of  Federal  hatred  his 
name  could  not  be  of  much  service  to  the  cause. 
Still,  he  followed  the  only  course  by  which  any 
party  can  be  held  together,  and  surrendered  his 
prejudices  and  fears  to  the  wishes  of  his  friends. 
The  Republican  caucus  met  on  February  14,  1824, 
in  the  chamber  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 
Of  the  216  members  of  the  party  only  66  at 
tended.  Martin  Van  Buren,  then  senator  from 
New  York,  managed  this,  the  last  congressional 
caucus  for  the  selection  of  candidates. 

The  solemnity  given  to  the  congressional  nom 
inations,  and  the  publicity  of  the  answers  of  can 
didates,  Mr.  Gallatin  held  to  be  political  blunders, 


CANDIDATE  FOR  THE   VICE-PRESIDENCY.    371 

In  fact  the  plan  was  adroitly  denounced  as  an  at 
tempt  to  dictate  to  the  people. 

Crawford  was  nominated  for  president  by  64 
votes,  Gallatin  for  vice-president  by  57.  This 
nomination  Mr.  Gallatin  accepted  in  a  note  to  Mr. 
Ruggles,  United  States  senator,  on  May  10,  1824. 
But  there  were  elements  of  which  party  leaders 
of  the  old  school  had  not  taken  sufficient  account. 
Macon  was  right  when  he  said  that  "  every  gener-. 
ation,  like  a  single  person,  has  opinions  of  its  own, 
as  much  so  in  politics  as  anything  else,"  and  that 
'the  opinions  of  Jefferson  and  those  who  were 
with  him  were  forgotten.*  And  Jefferson  himself, 
in  his  complacent  reflection  that  even  the  name  of 
Federalist  was  "  extinguished  by  the  battle  of 
New  Orleans,"  did  not  see  that  the  Republican 
party  of  the  old  school  had  been  snuffed  out  by 
the  same  event.  The  new  democracy,  whose 
claims  to  rule  were  based,  not  on  the  policy  of 
peace  or  restricted  powers,  but  on  the  seductive 
glitter  of  military  glory,  was  in  the  ascendant,  and 
General  Jackson  was  the  favorite  of  the  hour. 
New  combinations  became  necessary,  and  Mr.  Gal 
latin  was  requested  to  withdraw  from  the  ticket, 
and  make  room  for  Mr.  Clay,  whose  great  western 
influence  it  was  hoped  would  save  it  from  defeat. 
This  he  gladly  did  in  a  declaration  of  October  2, 
addressed  to  Martin  Van  Buren,  dated  at  his  Fay- 
ette  home,  and  published  in  the  "  National  Intel 
ligencer."  The  result  of  the  election  was  singular. 
Calhoun  was  elected  vice-president  by  the  people. 


372  ALBERT  GALLAT1N. 

The  presidential  contest  was  decided  in  the  House, 
Adams  being  chosen  over  Jackson  and  Crawford, 
by  the  influence  of  Clay.  Mr.  Gallatin  quickly 
discerned  in  the  failure  of  the  people  to  elect  a 
president  the  collapse  of  the  Republican  party. 
He  considered  it  as  "  fairly  defunct." 

Jackson  had  already  announced  the  startling 
doctrine  that  no  regard  was  to  be  had  to  party  in 
the  selection  of  the  great  officers  of  government, 
which  Mr.  Gallatin  considered  as  tantamount  to  a 
declaration  that  principles  and  opinions  were  of  no 
importance  in  its  administration.  To  lose  sight 
of  this  principle  was  to  substitute  men  for  meas 
ures.  Jackson's  idea  of  party,  however,  was  per 
sonal  fealty.  He  engrafted  the  pouvoir  personnel 
on  the  Democratic  party  as  thoroughly  as  Napo 
leon  could  have  done  in  his  place.  Moreover,  Gal 
latin  considered  Jackson's  assumption  of  power  in 
his  collisions  with  the  judiciary  at  New  Orleans 
and  Pensacola,  and  his  orders  to  take  St.  Augus 
tine  without  the  authority  of  Congress,  as  danger 
ous  assaults  upon  the  Constitution  of  the  country 
and  the  liberties  of  the  people,  and  he  dreaded 
the  substitution  of  the  worship  of  a  military  chief 
tain  for  the  maintenance  of  that  liberty,  the  last 
hope  of  man.  Ten  years  later  he  uttered  the  same 
opinion  in  a  conversation  with  Miss  Martineau, 
and  he  expressed  a  preference  for  an  annual  pres 
ident,  a  cipher,  so  that  all  would  be  done  by  the 
ministry.  But  in  the  impossibility  of  this  plan, 
he  would  have  preferred  a  four  years  term  without 


CANDIDATE  FOR  THE   VICE-PRESIDENCY.     373 

renewal  or  an  extension  of  six  years  ;  an  idea 
adopted  by  Davis  in  his  plan  of  disintegration  by 
secession.  The  presidency,  Mr.  Gallatin  thought, 
was  "  too  much  power  for  one  man  ;  therefore  it 
fills  all  men's  thoughts  to  the  detriment  of  better 
things." 

When  Mr.  Gallatin  visited  Washington  in  1829, 
he  found  a  state  of  society,  political  and  social, 
widely  at  variance  with  his  own  experience.  The 
ways  of  Federalist  and  Republican  cabinets  were 
traditions  of  an  irrevocable  past.  Jackson  was 
political  dictator,  arid  took  counsel  only  from  his 
prejudices.  The  old  simplicity  had  given  way  to 
elegance  and  luxury  of  adornment.  The  east  room 
of  the  presidential  mansion  was  covered  with 
Brussels'  carpeting.  There  were  silk  curtains  at 
the  windows,  French  mirrors  of  unusual  size,  and 
three  splendid  English  crystal  chandeliers.  In  the 
dining-room  were  a  hundred  candles  and  lamps, 
and  silver  plate  of  every  description,  and  presiding 
over  this  magnificence  the  strange  successors  of 
Washington  and  his  stately  dame,  of  Madison  and 
his  no  less  elegant  wife,  —  the  hero  of  New  Or 
leans  and  Peggy  O'Neal. 

When,  it  is  not  too  soon  to  ask,  in  the  general 
reform  of  civil  service,  shall  the  possibility  of  such 
anomalies  be  entirety  removed  by  restricting  the 
executive  mansion  to  an  executive  bureau,  and 
entirely  separating  social  ceremony  from  official 
state,  to  the  final  suppression  of  back  stairs  influ 
ence  and  kitchen  cabinets. 


CHAPTER  X. 

SOCIETY  —  LITEE  ATUEE  —  SCIENCE. 

ME.  GALLATIN'S  land  speculations  were  not 
profitable.  His  plan  of  Swiss  colonization  did  not 
result  in  any  pecuniary  advantage  to  himself.  His 
little  patrimony,  received  in  1786,  he  invested  in  a 
plantation  of  about  five  hundred  acres  on  the  Mo- 
nongahela.  Twelve  years  later,  in  1798,  he  was 
neither  richer  nor  poorer  than  at  the  time  of  his  in 
vestment.  The  entire  amount  of  claims  which  he 
held  with  Savary  he  sold  in  1794,  without  warranty 
of  title,  to  Robert  Morris,  then  the  great  specu 
lator  in  western  lands,  for  four  thousand  dollars, 
Pennsylvania  currency.  This  sum,  his  little  farm, 
and  five  or  six  hundred  pounds  cash  were  then 
his  entire  fortune.  In  1794,  the  revolution  in 
Switzerland  having  driven  out  numbers  of  his 
compatriots,  he  formed  a  plan  of  association  con 
sisting  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  shares  of  eight 
hundred  dollars  each,  of  which  the  Genevans  in 
Philadelphia,  Odier,  Fazzi,  the  two  Cazenove, 
Cheriot,  Bourdillon,  Duby,  Couronne,  Badollet, 
and  himself  took  twenty-five  each.  Twenty-five 
were  offered  to  Americans,  which  were  nearly  all 


SOCIETY—  LITERATURE  —  SCIENCE.  375 

taken  up,  and  one  hundred  were  sent  to  Geneva, 
Switzerland,  to  D'Yvernois  and  his  friends.  The 
project  was  to  purchase  land,  and  Mr.  Gallatin 
had  decided  upon  a  location  in  the  northeast  part 
of  Pennsylvania,  or  in  New  York,  on  the  border. 
In  the  summer  Gallatin  made  a  journey  through 
New  York  to  examine  lands  with  the  idea  of  oc 
cupation.  In  July,  1795,  he  made  a  settlement 
with  Mr.  Morris,  taking  his  notes  for  three  thou 
sand  five  hundred  dollars.  Balancing  his  ac 
counts,  Mr.  Gallatin  then  found  himself  worth 
seven  thousand  dollars,  in  addition  to  which  he 
had  about  twenty-five  thousand  acres  of  waste 
lands  and  the  notes  of  Mr.  Morris.  In  1798  Mr. 
Morris  failed,  and,  under  the  harsh  operations  of 
the  old  law,  was  sent  to  jail.  Mr.  Gallatin  never 
recovered  the  three  thousand  dollars  owed  to  him 
in  the  final  balance  of  his  real  estate  operations. 

After  Mr.  Gallatin  left  the  Treasury  he  located 
patents  for  seventeen  hundred  acres  of  Virginia 
military  lands  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  on  warrants 
purchased  in  1784.  In  1815  he  valued  his  entire 
estate,  exclusive  of  his  farm  on  the  Monongahela, 
at  less  than  twelve  thousand  dollars.  Forty  years 
later  he  complained  of  his  investment  as  a  troub 
lesome  and  unproductive  property,  which  had 
plagued  him  all  his  life.  Besides  the  purchase  of 
lands,  Mr.  Gallatin  invested  part  of  his  little  capi 
tal  in  building  houses  on  his  farm,  and  in  the 
country  store  which  Badollet  managed.  The  one 


376  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

yielded  no  return,  and  the  sum  put  in  the  other 
was  lost  through  the  incompetency  of  his  honest 
but  inexperienced  friend.  His  wife  brought  him 
a  small  property,  but  at  no  time  in  his  life  was  he 
possessed  of  more  than  a  modest  competency. 
But  he  had  never  any  discontent  with  his  fortune 
nor  any  desire  to  be  rich. 

Mrs.  Gallatin,  who  had  always  until  her  mar 
riage  lived  in  cities,  was  entirely  unfit  for  frontier 
life.  In  these  days  of  railroads  it  is  not  easy  to 
measure  the  isolation  of  their  country  home. 
Pittsburgh  was  nearly  five  days'  journey  from 
Philadelphia,  and  the  crossing  of  the  Alleghanies 
took  a  day  and  a  half  more.  Before  his  marriage 
Mr.  Gallatin  had  seen  very  little  of  society. 
Though  in  early  manhood  he  felt  no  embarrass 
ment  among  men,  he  said  "  that  he  never  yet  was 
able  to  divest  himself  of  an  anti-Chesterfieldian 
awkwardness  in  mixed  companies."  He  did  not 
take  advantage  of  his  residence  in  Philadelphia  to 
accustom  himself  to  the  ways  of  the  world.  There 
he  lived  in  lodgings  and  met  the  leading  public 
characters  of  both  parties.  But  when  he  took  his 
seat  in  the  cabinet,  he  found  it  necessary  to  enter 
upon  housekeeping  and  to  take  a  prominent  part 
in  society,  for  which  his  wife  was  admirably  suited, 
both  by  temperament  and  education.  Washing 
ton  Irving  wrote  of  her  in  November,  1812,  that 
she  was  4  the  most  stylish  woman  in  the  drawing- 
room  that  session,  and  that  she  dressed  with  more 


SOCIETY—  LITERATURE  —  SCIENCE.          377 

splendor  than  any  other  of  the  noblesse ; '  and 
again  the  same  year  compared  her  with  the  wife 
of  the  president,  whose  courtly  manners  and  con 
summate  tact  and  grace  are  a  tradition  of  the  re 
publican  court.  "Tell  your  good  lady,"  mother 
Irving  wrote  to  James  Renwick,  "  that  Mrs.  Madi 
son  has  been  much  indisposed,  and  at  last  Wednes 
day's  evening  drawing-room  Mrs.  Gallatin  presided 
in  her  place.  I  was  not  present,  but  those  who 
were  assure  me  that  she  filled  Mrs.  Madison's 
chair  to  a  miracle."  This  is  in  the  sense  of  dig 
nity,  for  Mrs.  Gallatin  was  of  small  stature. 

Mr.  Gallatin's  house  shared  the  fate  of  the  pub 
lic  buildings  and  was  burned  by  the  British  when 
Washington  was  captured  in  1814.  He  was  then 
in  London  negotiating  for  peace.  On  his  return 
from  France  Mr.  Gallatin  made  one  more  attempt 
to  realize  his  early  idea  of  a  country  home,  and 
with  his  family  went  in  the  summer  of  1823  to 
Friendship  Hill.  Here  an  Irish  carpenter  built 
for  him  a  house  which  he  humorously  described 
as  being  in  the  4  Hyberno-teutonic  style,  —  the 
outside,  with  its  port-hole-looking  windows,  hav 
ing  the  appearance  of  Irish  barracks,  while  the 
inside  ornaments  were  similar  to  those  of  a  Dutch 
tavern,  and  in  singular  contrast  to  the  French 
marble  chimney-pieces,  paper,  mirrors,  and  bil 
liard-table.'  In  the  summer  Friendship  Hill  was 
an  agreeable  residence,  but  Mr.  Gallatin  found  it 
in  winter  too  isolated  even  for  his  taste. 


378  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

One  exciting  circumstance  enlivened  the  spring 
of  1825.  This  was  the  passage  of  Lafayette,  the 
guest  of  the  nation,  through  western  Pennsyl 
vania  on  hio  famous  tour.  Mr.  Gallatin  welcomed 
him  in  an  address  before  the  court-house  of  Union- 
town,  the  capital  of  Fayette  County,  on  May  26. 
In  his  speech  Mr.  Gallatin  reviewed  the  condition 
of  the  liberal  cause  in  Europe,  and  the  emancipa 
tion  of  Greece,  then  agitating  both  continents.  In 
this  all  scholars  as  well  as  all  liberals  were  of  one 
mind  and  heart.  After  the  proceedings  Lafayette 
drove  with  Mr.  Gallatin  to  Friendship  Hill,  where 
he  passed  the  night ;  crowds  of  people  pouring 
down  the  valley  from  the  mountain  roads  to  see 
the  adopted  son  of  the  United  States,  the  friend  of 
Washington,  the  liberator  of  France.  The  inti 
macy  between  these  two  great  men,  who  had  alike 
devoted  the  flower  of  their  youth  to  the  interests  of 
civilization  and  the  foundation  of  the  new  republic, 
was  never  broken. 

Mr.  Gallatin  passed  only  one  winter  at  New 
Geneva.  On  his  return  from  his  last  mission  to 
England  he  settled  permanently  in  New  York,  and 
in  1828  took  a  house  at  No.  113  Bleecker  Street, 
then  in  the  suburbs  of  the  city.  He  wrote  to  Ba- 
dollet  in  March,  1829,  that  'it  was  an  ill-contrived 
plan  to  think  that  the  banks  of  the  Monongahela, 
where  he  was  perfectly  satisfied  to  live  and  die  in 
retirement,  could  be  borne  by  the  female  part  of 
his  family,  or  by  children  brought  up  at  Washing- 


SOCIETY  —  LITERATURE  —  SCIENCE.  379 

ton  and  Paris."  The  population  of  New  York  has 
always  been  migratory,  and  Mr.  Gallatin  was  no 
exception  to  the  rule.  In  the  ten  years  which 
followed  his  first  location  he  changed  his  residence 
on  four  May  days,  finally  settling  at  No.  57 
Bleecker  Street,  nearly  opposite  to  Crosby  Street. 
His  life  in  New  York  is  a  complete  period  in  his 
intellectual  as  in  his  physical  existence,  and  the 
most  interesting  of  his  career.  His  last  twenty 
years  were  in  great  measure  devoted  to  scientific 
studies. 

The  National  Bank,  over  which  he  presided  for 
the  first  ten  years,  took  but  a  small  part  of  his 
time.  The  remainder  was  given  up  to  study  and 
conversation,  an  art  in  which  he  had  no  superior 
in  this  country  and  probably  none  abroad.  Soon 
after  his  arrival  in  New  York,  Mr.  Gallatin  was 
chosen  a  member  of  "  The  Club,"  an  association 
.famous  in  its  day.  As  no  correct  account  of  this 
social  organization  has  ever  appeared,  the  letter  of 
invitation  to  Mr.  Gallatin  is  of  some  interest.  It 
was  written  by  Dr.  John  Augustine  Smith,  on 
November  2,  1829.  An  extract  gives  the  origin 
of  the  club. 

"  Nearly  two  years  ago  some  of  the  literary  gentle 
men  of  the  city,  feeling  severely  the  almost  total  want 
of  intercourse  among  themselves,  determined  to  es 
tablish  an  association  which  should  bring  them  more 
frequently  into  contact.  Accordingly  they  founded  the 
'Club'  as  it  is  commonly  called,  and  which  I  believe  I 


380  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

mentioned  to  you  when  I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
you  in  Bond  Street.  Into  this  '  Club '  twelve  persons 
only  are  admitted,  and  there  are  at  present  three  gentle- 
men  of  the  Bar,  Chancellor  Kent,  Messrs.  Johnston  and 
Jay,  three  professors  of  Columbia  College,  Messrs. 
McVickar,  Moore,  and  Renwick,  the  Rev.  Drs.  Wain- 
wright  and  Mathews,  the  former  of  the  Episcopal 
Church,  the  latter  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  two  mer 
chants,  Messrs.  Brevoort  and  Goodhue,  and  I  have  the 
honor  to  represent  the  medical  faculty.  Our  twelfth 
associate  was  Mr.  Morse,  of  the  National  Academy  of 
Design,  of  which  he  was  president,  and  his  departure  for 
Europe  has  caused  a  vacancy.  For  agreeableness  of 
conversation  there  is  nothing  in  New  York  at  all  com 
parable  to  our  institution.  We  meet  once  a  week ;  no 
officers,  no  formalities  ;  invitations,  when  in  case  of  in 
telligent  and  distinguished  strangers,  and  after  a  plain 
and  light  repast,  retire  about  eleven  o'clock." 

At  this  club  Mr.  Gallatin,  with  his  wonderful 
conversational  powers,  became  at  once  the  centre  of 
interest.  The  club  met  at  the  houses  of  members 
in  the  winter  evenings.  There  was  always  a  sup 
per,  but  the  rule  was  absolute  that  there  should 
be  only  one  hot  dish  served,  a  regulation  which  the 
ladies  endeavored  to  evade  when  the  turn  of  their 
husbands  arrived  to  supply  the  feast.  Among  the 
later  members  were  Professor  Anderson,  John 
A.  Stevens,  Mr.  Gallatin's  countryman  De  Rham, 
John  Wells,  Samuel  Ward,  Gulian  C.  Verplanck, 
and  Charles  King.  No  literary  symposium  in 
America  was  ever  more  delightful,  more  instruo- 


SOCIE  TY  —  LITERATURE  —  SCIENCE.  381 

tive,  than  these  meetings.  On  these  occasions  Mr. 
Gallatin  led  the  conversation,  which  usually  cov 
ered  a  wide  field.  His  memory  was  marvellous, 
and  his  personal  acquaintance  with  the  great  men 
who  were  developed  by  the  French  revolution, 
emperors  and  princes,  heroes,  statesmen,  and  men 
of  science,  gave  to  the  easy  flow  of  his  speech  the 
zest  of  anecdote  and  the  spice  of  epigram.  Once 
heard  he  was  never  forgotten.  And  this  rare 
faculty  he  preserved  undiminished  to  the  close  of 
his  life.  Washington  Irving,  himself  the  most 
genial  of  men,  and  the  most  graceful  of  talkers, 
wrote  of  him,  after  meeting  him  at  dinner,  in  1841 : 
"  Mr.  Gallatin  was  in  fine  spirits  and  full  of  con 
versation.  He  is  upwards  of  eighty,  yet  has  all 
the  activity  and  clearness  of  mind  and  gayety  of 
spirits  of  a  young  man.  How  delightful  it  is  to 
see  such  intellectual  and  joyous  old  age :  to  see 
life  running  out  clear  and  sparkling  to  the  last 
drop !  With  such  a  blessed  temperament  one 
would  be  content  to  linger  and  spin  out  the  last 
thread  of  existence." 

At  the  close  of  the  year  1829  Mr.  Gallatin  at 
tempted  to  carry  out  his  old  and  favorite  plan  of 
the  "  establishment  of  a  general  system  of  rational 
and  practical  education  fitted  for  all,  and  gratui 
tously  open  to  all."  The  want  of  an  institution  for 
education,  combining  the  advantages  of  a  Euro 
pean  university  with  the  recent  improvements  in 
instruction,  was  seriously  felt.  New  York,  already 


382  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

a  great  city,  and  rapidly  growing,  offered  the  most 
promising  field  for  the  national  university  on  a 
broad  and  liberal  foundation  correspondent  to  the 
spirit  of  the  age.  The  difficulty  of  obtaining  com 
petent  teachers  of  even  the  lower  branches  of 
knowledge  in  the  public  schools,  the  system  of 
which  was  in  its  infancy,  was  great.  Persons 
could  be  found  with  learning  enough,  but  they 
were  generally  deficient  in  the  art  of  teaching. 
Governor  Throop  noticed  this  deficiency  in  his 
message  of  January,  1830,  without,  however,  the 
recommendation  of  any  remedy  by  legislation. 
The  existing  colleges  could  not  supply  the  want. 
At  this  period  religious  prejudice  controlled  the 
actions  of  men  in  every  walk  of  life  ;  for  the  old 
colonial  jealousies  of  Episcopalian  and  Presbyte 
rian  survived  the  Revolution.  The  religious  dis 
trust  of  scientific  investigation  was  also  at  its 
height.  Columbia  College,  the  successor  of  old 
King's  College,  was  governed  in  the  Episcopalian 
interest.  Private  zeal  could  alone  be  relied  upon 
to  establish  the  new  enterprise  on  a  foundation 
free  from  the  influence  of  clergy ;  an  indispensa 
ble  condition  of  success.  These  were  the  views 
of  Mr.  Jefferson  in  1807.  These  were  the  views 
of  Mr.  Gallatin.  In  response  to  his  request  abun 
dant  subscriptions  in  money  and  material  were  at 
once  forthcoming. 

The  project  of  a  national  university  at  New 
York  was  received  by  the  literary  institutions  of 


SOCIETY  —  LITERATURE  —  SCIENCE.          383 

the  United  States  with  great  enthusiasm.  In  Oc 
tober,  1830,  a  convention  of  more  than  a  hundred 
literary  and  scientific  gentlemen,  delegates  from 
different  parts  of  the  country,  and  of  the  highest 
distinction,  was  held  in  the  common  council  cham 
ber.  The  outcome  of  their  deliberations  was  the 
foundation  of  the  New  York  University.  Mr. 
Gallatin  was  the  president  of  the  first  council,  but 
his  connection  with  the  institution  was  of  short 
continuance.  The  reasons  for  his  withdrawal  were 
set  forth  in  a  letter  to  his  old  friend,  John  Badol- 
let,  written  February  7, 1833.  Beginning  with  an 
expression  of  his  desire  to  devote  what  remained 
of  his  life  "  to  the  establishment  in  this  immense 
and  growing  city  (New  York)  of  a  general  system 
of  rational  and  practical  education  fitted  for  all 
and  gratuitously  opened  to  all,"  he  said,  "  but 
finding  that  the  object  was  no  longer  the  same, 
that  a  certain  portion  of  the  clergy  had  obtained 
the  control,  and  that  their  object,  though  lauda 
ble,  was  special  and  quite  distinct  from  mine,  I  re 
signed  at  the  end  of  one  year  rather  than  to  strug 
gle,  probably  in  vain  for  what  was  nearly  unat 
tainable."  The  history  of  the  university  through 
its  precarious  existence  of  half  a  century  amply 
justifies  Mr.  Gallatin's  previsions  and  retirement. 
Instead  of  the  American  Sorbonne,  of  which  he 
dreamed,  it  has  never  been  more  than  a  local  in 
stitution,  struggling  to  hold  a  place  in  a  crowded 
field. 


884  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

Mr.  Gallatin  followed  the  evolutions  of  French 
politics  with  interest.  His  friend  Lafayette,  who,, 
during  the  Empire,  lived  in  almost  enforced  re 
tirement  at  his  estate  of  La  Grange,  was  a  volun 
tary  exile  from  the  court  of  Charles  X.,  whose 
autocratic  principles  and  aggressive  course  were 
rapidly  driving  France  into  fresh  revolution.  In 
July,  1830,  the  crisis  was  precipitated  by  the  royal 
decrees  published  in  the  "  Moniteur."  Lafayette, 
who  was  on  his  estate,  hurried  instantly  to  Paris, 
where  he  became  a  rallying  point,  and  himself 
signed  tlie  note  to  the  King,  announcing  that  he 
had  ceased  to  reign.  In  September  following  it 
fell  to  him  to  write  to  Mr.  Gallatin  on  the  occasion 
of  the  marriage  of  Gallatin's  daughter.  In  this 
union  Lafayette  had  a  triple  interest.  Besides 
his  personal  attachment  for  Mr.  Gallatin,  each  of 
the  young  couple  was  descended  from  one  of  his 
old  companions-in-arms.  The  groom,  Mr.  Byam 
Kerby  Stevens,  was  a  son  of  Colonel  Ebenezer 
Stevens,  of  the  continental  service,  who  was  La 
fayette's  chief  of  artillery  in  his  expedition  against 
Arnold  in  Virginia,  in  the  spring  of  1781  ;  the 
bride,  Frances  Gallatin,  was,  on  the  mother's  side, 
the  granddaughter  of  Commodore  James  Nichol 
son,  who  commanded  the  gunboats  which,  impro 
vised  by  Colonel  Stevens,  drove  out  the  British 
vessels  from  Annapolis  Bay  anc'  opened  the  route 
to  the  blockaded  American  flotilb,.1 

1  An  account  of  this  expedition  may  be  f  arul  in  the  public* 
tions  of  the  Maryland  Historical  Society, 


SOCIETY— LITERATURE  — SCIENCE.  385 

"  PARIS,  September  8,  1830. 

"  MY  DEAR  FRIEND  :  —  A  long  time  has  elapsed 
»ince  I  had  the  pleasure  to  hear  from  you.  I  need  not, 
I  hope,  add,  that  my  affectionate  feelings  have  been  con 
tinually  with  you,  especially  in  what  related  to  my  young 
friend  whose  change  of  name  has  more  deeply  interested 
every  member,  and  in  a  very  particular  manner,  the 
younger  part  of  the  family.  Let  me  hear  of  you  all, 
and  receive  my  tender  regards  and  wishes,  with  those  of 
my  children  and  grandchildren.  LAFAYETTE." 

Both  of  the  young  people  had  the  honor  of  La- 
fayette's  acquaintance.  Mr.  Stevens  during  a  visit 
to  Paris,  and  Miss  Gallatin  during  her  father's 
residence  there  as  minister,  when  she-  was  much 
admired,  and  was,  in  the  words  of  Madame  Bona 
parte  (Miss  Patterson),  c  a  beauty.'  In  this  letter 
Lafayette  gives  a  picturesque  account  of  the  three 
days'  fighting  at  the  barricades,  and  of  the  depart 
ure  of  the  ex-king  and  the  royal  army,  accom 
panied  by  "  some  twenty  thousand  Parisians,  in 
coaches,  hacks,  and  omnibus.  .  .  .  The  royal  party, 
aftec  returning  the  jewels  of  the  crown,  went 
slowly  to  Cherbourg  with  their  own  escort,  under 
the  protection  of  three  commissioners,  and  were 
there  permitted  quietly  to  embark  for  England." 

In  1834  Mr.  Gallatin's  sympathies  were  greatly 
excited  by  the  arrival  at  New  York  of  a  number 
of  Poles,  many  of  them  educated  men,  and  among 
them  Etsko,  a  nephew  of  Kosciusko.  A  public 
committee  was  raised,  called  the  Polish  committee, 

25 


386  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

of  which  Mr.  Gallatin  was  chosen  chairman.  Be« 
sides  superintending  the  collection  of  funds,  he 
arranged  and  carried  out  in  the  minutest  details  a 
plan  to  quarter  the  exiles  upon  the  inhabitants. 
A  list  of  names  ending  in  ski  still  remains  among 
his  papers ;  to  each  was  assigned  a  number,  and 
they  were  allotted  by  streets  and  numbers,  — 
number  182,  one  Szelesegynski,  was  taken  by  Mr. 
Gallatin  himself,  to  look  after  horses.  These  un 
fortunate  men  were  then  distributed  through  the 
country,  as  occupations  could  be  found.  In  Octo 
ber  Mr.  Gallatin's  notes  show  that  all  had  been 
provided  for  except  fourteen  boys,  for  whom  a 
subscription  was  taken  up.  A  tract  of  land  in 
Illinois  was  assigned  by  Congress  to  these  political 
exiles. 

Mr.  Gallatin's  first  acquaintance  with  the  Amer 
ican  Indian  was  made  at  Machias.  In  the  neigh 
borhood  of  this  frontier  town,  across  the  Canadian 
border,  there  were  still  remnants  of  the  Abenaki 
and  Etchemin  tribes.  They  were  French  in  sym 
pathy,  and  all  converts  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
faith.  Mr.  Lesdernier,  with  whom  Gallatin  lodged, 
had  influence  over  them  from  the  trade  he  estab 
lished  with  them  in  furs,  and  as  their  religious 
purveyor.  He  had  paid  a  visit  to  Boston  at  the 
time  the  French  fleet  was  there  in  1781,  and 
brought  home  a  Capuchin  priest  for  their  service. 
To  the  young  Genevan,  brought  up  in  the  restric 
tions  of  European  civilization,  the  history  of  the 


SOCIETY  —  LITERATURE  —  SCIENCE.  387 

savage  was  a  favorite  study.  In  the  winter  even 
ings,  in  the  quiet  of  the  log  hut,  with  the  aid  of 
one  familiar  with  the  customs  and  traditions  of  the 
race,  the  foundations  were  laid  of  a  permanent 
interest  in  this  almost  untrodden  branch  of  human 
science.  The  Canadian  Indians,  however,  hemmed 
in  by  French  and  English  settlements,  were  semi- 
civilized.  The  Miamis  and  Shawnees,  who  ranged 
the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  were  the  tribes  nearest  to 
Gallatin's  home  on  the  Monongahela,  These, 
though  for  a  long  time  under  the  influence  of  the 
French,  retained  their  original  wildness,  and  were, 
during  the  first  years  of  his  residence,  the  dread 
of  the  frontier. 

The  interest  aroused  in  the  mind  of  Mr.  Galla- 
tin  by  personal  observation  was  quickened  by  his 
intimacy  with  Jefferson,  whose  "  Notes  on  Vir 
ginia,"  published  in  1801,  contained  the  first  at 
tempt  at  a  classification  and  enumeration  of  the 
American  tribes.  The  earlier  work  of  Golden  was 
confined  to  the  Five  Nations  of  the  Iroquois  Con 
federacy.  The  arrangement  of  the  Louisiana  ter 
ritory,  ceded  by  France,  brought  Mr.  Gallatin  into 
contact  with  Pierre  Louis  Chouteau,  and  an  inti 
macy,  formed  with  John  Jacob  Astor,  who  was 
largely  concerned  in  the  fur  trade  of  the  North 
west,  widened  the  field  of  interest,  which  included 
the  geography  of  the  interior,  and  the  customs  of 
its  inhabitants.  Mr.  Gallatin's  examination  of  the 
subject  was  general,  however,  and  did  not  take  a 
practical  scientific  turn  until  the  year  1823,  when, 


388  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

at  the  request  of  Baron  Alexander  von  Humboldt, 
he  set  forth  the  results  of  his  studies  in  the  form  of 
a  Synopsis  of  the  Indian  tribes.  This  essay,  com 
municated  by  Humboldt  to  the  Italian  geographer 
Balbi,  then  engaged  upon  his  "  Atlas  Ethnograph- 
ique  du  Globe,"  —  a  classification  by  languages  of 
ancient  and  modern  peoples,  —  was  quoted  by  him 
in  his  volume  introductory  to  that  remarkable 
work  published  in  1826,  in  a  manner  to  attract  the 
attention  of  the  scientific  world.  Vater,  in  his 
"  Mithridates,"  first  attempted  a  classification  of 
the  languages  of  the  globe,  but  the  work  of  Mr. 
Gallatin,  though  confined  in  subject,  was  original 
in  its  conception  and  treatment.  In  the  winter  of 
1825-26  a  large  gathering  of  southern  Indians  at 
Washington  enabled  him  to  obtain  good  vocabu 
laries  of  several  of  the  tribes.  Uniting  these  to 
those  already  acquired,  he  published  a  table  of  all 
the  existing  tribes,  and  at  the  same  time,  at  his 
instance,  the  War  Department  circulated  through 
its  posts  a  vocabulary  containing  six  hundred 
words  of  verbal  forms  and  of  selected  sentences, 
and  a  series  of  grammatical  queries,  to  which  an 
swers  were  invited.  He  also  opened  an  elaborate 
correspondence  with  such  persons  as  were  best 
acquainted  with  the  Indian  tribes  in  different  sec 
tions  of  the  country.1  The  replies  to  these  vari- 

WASHINGTON,  29th  May,  1826. 

1  SIR,  —  Mr.  Stewart  communicated  to  me  yo'lr  answer  of  4th 
April  last  to  the  letter  which,  at  my  request,  he  had  addressed  to 
you ;  and  I  return  you  my  thanks  for  your  kiud  offer  to  forward 


SOCIETY—  LITERATURE  -  SCIENCE.  389 

ous  queries  were  few  in  number,  but  the  practical 
plan,  adhered  to  in  substance,  has  resulted  in  the 
collection  by  the  Smithsonian  Institution  of  a  very 
large  number  of  Indian  vocabularies.1 

the  object  in  view ;  one  which  is  not,  however,  of  a  private  nature 
but  connected  with  what  is  intended  to  be  a  National  work,  and  I 
have  delayed  writing  in  order  to  be  able  to  send  at  the  same 
time  the  papers  herewith  transmitted. 

It  is  at  my  suggestion  that  the  Secretary  of  War  has,  with  the 
approbation  of  the  President,  taken  measures  to  collect  compara 
tive  vocabularies  of  all  the  languages  and  dialects  of  the  Indian 
tribes  still  existing  within  the  United  States.  The  circular  is  ad 
dressed  to  all  the  Indian  superintendents  and  agents,  and  to  the 
missionaries  with  whom  the  Department  corresponds.  But  they 
have  no  agent  with  the  Nottoways,  and  we  are  fortunate  that  you 
should  have  been  disposed  to  lend  your  aid  on  this  occasion. 

It  is  the  intention  of  government  that  the  result  of  these  re 
searches  should  be  published,  giving  due  credit  to  every  indi 
vidual  who  shall  have  assisted  in  a  work  that  has  been  long  ex 
pected  from  us,  and  which  will  be  equally  honorable  to  the  per 
sons  concerned  and  to  the  country.  It  had  been  my  intention  to 
contribute  my  share  in  its  further  progress  :  this  my  approaching 
departure  for  Europe  forbids.  The  inclosed  papers,  attending  to 
the  Notes  and  to  the  circular,  are  so  full  that  I  need  not  add  any 
further  explanation,  and  have  only  to  request  that  you  will  have 
the  goodness  to  transmit  whatever  vocabulary  and  other  infor 
mation  you  may  obtain  to  Colonel  Tho.  L.  McKinney,  Office  of 
Indian  Affairs,  under  cover  directed  to  the  Secretary  of  War. 
Mr.  McKinney  will  also  be  happy  to  answer  any  querries  on  the 
subject  you  may  have  to  propose. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be  respectfully,  sir, 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 

ALBERT  GALLATIN. 
Mr.  James  Rochelle, 

Jerusalem,  Southampton  County,  Virginia. 
Communicated  by  J.  H.  Rochelle,  Jerusalem,  Virginia. 

I  Among  the  most  distinguished  of  those  who  have  followed 


390  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

This  class  of  investigation,  in  its  ample  scope  for 
original  research  and  the  ascertainment  of  princi 
ples  by  analysis  and  analogic  expression,  was  pe 
culiarly  agreeable  to  Mr.  Gallatin.  His  friend,  du 
Ponceau,1  who  served  in  the  American  war  as  the 
secretary  of  Steuben,  and  was  now  established  in 
Philadelphia,  was  likewise  deeply  engaged  in  phil- 
ologic  studies  ;  in  1819  he  had  published  a  memoir 
of  the  construction  of  the  languages  of  the  North 
American  Indians,  which  he  followed  later  with 
other  papers  of  a  similar  nature,  among  which 
were  a  "  Grammar  of  the  Languages  of  the  Lenni 
Lenape  or  Delaware  Indians,"  and  a  memoir  on 
the  grammatical  system  of  the  languages  of  tha 
Indian  tribes  of  North  America,  a  learned  and 
highly  instructive  paper,  which. took  the  Volney 
prize  at  Paris. 

In  1836  Mr.  Gallatin 's  original  paper,  contrib 
uted  to  Balbi,  amplified  by  subsequent  acquisi 
tions,  was  published  by  the  American  Antiquariam 
Society  of  Worcester,  in  the  first  volume  of  ita 
Transactions.  It  was  entitled  "  A  Synopsis  of  tho 
Indian  Tribes,  within  the  United  States  east  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  in  the  British  and 
Russian  Possessions  in  North  America."  This 

the  pathway  indicated  by  Mr.  Gallatin  was  the  late  George 
Gibbs,  an  indefatigable  student,  and  an  admirable  ethnologist. 
His  Chinook  jargon  was  published  by  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 
1  Mr.  du  Ponceau  became  president  of  the  learned  societies  of 
Pennsylvania :  the  Historical  Society  and  the  American  Philo 
sophical  Society. 


SOCIET  Y  —LITER  A  T  URE—  SCIENCE.  3  91 

elaborate  inquiry,  the  foundation  of  the  science  in 
America,  was  intended  originally  to  embrace  all 
the  tribes  north  of  the  Mexican  semi-civilized  na 
tions.  From  the  want  of  material,  however,  it 
was  confined  at  the  southward  to  the  territory  of 
the  United  States,  and  eastward  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  It  included  eighty-one  tribes,  di 
vided  into  twenty-eight  families,  and  was  accom 
panied  by  a  colored  map,  with  tribal  indications. 
The  result  of  the  investigation  Mr.  Gallatin  held 
to  be  proof  that  all  the  languages,  not  only  of  our 
own  Indian  tribes,  but  of  the  nations  inhabiting 
America  from  the  Arctic  Ocean  to  Cape  Horn, 
have  a  distinct  character  common  to  all.  This 
paper  attracted  great  attention  in  Europe.  It  was 
reviewed  by  the  Count  de  Circourt,  whose  interest 
in  the  subject  was  heightened  by  personal  ac 
quaintance  with  the  author.  John  C.  Calhoun, 
acknowledging  receipt  of  a  copy  of  the  Synopsis, 
said  in  striking  phrase,  "  that  he  had  long  thought 
that  the  analogy  of  languages  is  destined  to  re 
cover  much  of  the  lost  history  of  nations  just  as 
geology  has  of  the  globe  we  inhabit." 

In  1838,  Congress  having  accepted  the  trust  of 
John  Smithson  of  £100,000,  and  pledged  the  faith 
of  the  United  States  for  its  purposes,  Mr.  For- 
syth,  the  Secretary  of  State,  addressed  Mr.  Gal 
latin,  at  the  request  of  the  President,  requesting 
his  views  as  to  its  proper  employment ;  but  Mr. 
Gallatin  does  not  appear  to  have  answered  the 


392  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

communication.  The  programme  of  the  Smith 
sonian  Institution,  inclosed  to  the  board  of  re 
gents  in  its  first  report,  stated  its  object  to  be  the 
increase  and  diffusion  of  knowledge,  and  bears 
marks  of  the  general  views  which  Mr.  Gallatin  had 
for  many  years  urged  on  public  attention.  The 
first  of  the  Smithsonian  "  Contributions  to  Knowl 
edge  "  was  the  memoir  of  Ancient  Monuments  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  by  Squier  and  Davis.  Be 
fore  its  publication  was  undertaken,  however,  it  was 
submitted  to  the  Ethnological  Society ;  Mr.  Gal 
latin  returned  it,  with  the  approval  of  the  society, 
and  some  words  of  commendation  of  his  own  ad 
dressed  to  Professor  Henry,  the  learned  superin 
tendent  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 

The  period  of  temporary  political  repose,  which 
followed  the  peace  of  Vienna  and  the  establish 
ment  of  the  balance  of  power  by  the  allied  sover 
eigns,  was  an  era  in  human  knowledge.  Science 
made  rapid  progress,  and  in  its  turn  showed  the 
broad  and  liberal  influence  of  the  great  revolution. 
In  1842  societies  were  founded  in  Paris  and  Lon 
don  to  promote  the  study  of  ethnology.  Mr.  Gal 
latin  would  not  be  behindhand  in  this  important 
work  for  which  America  offered  a  virgin  field. 
Drawing  about  him  a  number  of  gentlemen  of 
similar  tastes  with  his  own,  he  founded  in  New 
York,  in  1842,  the  American  Ethnological  Society. 
Among  his  associates  were  Dr.  Robinson,  the  fa 
mous  explorer  of  Palestine,  Schoolcraft,  Bartlett, 


80CIE  TY  —  LITERATURE  —  SCIENCE.  393 

and  Professor  Turner,  noted  for  their  researches 
in  the  history  and  languages  of  the  Indian  races. 
Messrs.  Atwater,  Bradford,  Hawks,  Gibbs,  Mayer, 
Dr.  Morton,  Pickering,  Stephens,  Evvbank,  and 
Squier  were  also,  either  in  the  beginning,  or  soon 
after,  members  of  this  select  and  learned  institu 
tion,  of  which  Mr.  Gallatin  was  the  central  figure. 
One  of  its  members  said  in  1871,  '  Mr.  Gallatin's 
house  was  the  true  seat  of  the  society,  and  Mr. 
Gallatin  himself  its  controlling  spirit.  His  name 
gave  it  character,  and  from  his  purse  mainly  was 
defrayed  the  cost  of  the  two  volumes  of  the 
"  Transactions  "  which  constitute  about  the  only 
claim  the  society  possesses  to  the  respect  of  the 
scientific  world.' 

To  the  first  of  these  volumes,  published  in  1845, 
Mr.  Gallatin  contributed  an  "  Essay  on  the  semi- 
civilized  nations  of  Mexico  and  Central  America, 
embracing  elaborate  notes  on  their  languages,  nu 
meration,  calendars,  history,  and  chronology,  and 
an  inquiry  into  the  probable  origin  of  their  semi- 
civilization."  In  this  he  included  all  existing  cer 
tain  knowledge  of  the  languages,  history,  astron 
omy  and  progress  in  art  of  these  peoples.  A  copy 
of  this  work  he  sent  to  General  Scott,  then  in  the 
city  of  Mexico  after  his  triumphant  campaign, 
inclosing  a  memorandum  which  he  urged  the  Gen 
eral  to  hand  to  civilians  attached  to  the  army. 
This  was  a  request  to  purchase  books,  copies  of 
documents,  printed  grammars,  and  vocabularies  of 


394  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

the  Mexican  languages,  and  he  authorized  the 
General  to  spend  four  hundred  dollars  in  this  pur 
pose  on  his  account.  In  the  second  volume,  pub 
lished  in  1848,  he  printed  the  result  of  his  con 
tinued  investigations  on  the  subject  which  first 
interested  him,  as  an  introduction  to  a  republica- 
tion  of  a  work  by  Mr.  Hale  on  the  "  Indians  of 
Northwest  America."  This  consisted  of  geograph 
ical  notices,  an  account  of  Indian  means  of  sub 
sistence,  the  ancient  semi-civilization  of  the  North 
west,  Indian  philology,  and  analogic  comparisons 
with  the  Chinese  and  Polynesian  languages. 
These  papers  Mr.  Gallatin  modestly  described  to 
Chevalier  as  the  4  fruits  of  his  leisure,'  and  to 
Sismondi  he  wrote  that  he  had  not  the  requisite 
talent  for  success  in  literature  or  science.  They 
nevertheless  entitle  him  to  the  honorable  name  of 
the  Father  of  American  Ethnography. 

In  1837  Mr.  Wheaton,  the  American  minister 
at  Berlin,  requested  Mr.  Gallatin  to  put  the  Baron 
von  Humboldt  in  possession  of  authentic  data  con 
cerning  the  production  of  gold  in  the  United 
States.  Humboldt  had  visited  the  Oural  and  Si 
berian  regions  in  1829,  at  the  request  of  the  Em 
peror  of  Russia,  to  make  investigations  as  to  their 
production  of  the  precious  metals.  Mr.  Gallatin 
was  the  only  authority  in  the  United  States  on  the 
subject.  Later  von  Humboldt  wrote  to  Mr.  Gal 
latin  of  the  interest  felt  abroad,  and  by  himself,  in 
the  gold  of  the  mountains  of  Virginia  and  Ten- 


SOCIETY—  LITERATURE  —  SCIENCE.  395 

nessee,  a  country  which  rivalled  on  a  small  scale 
the  Dorado  of  Siberia.  The  treasures  of  the 
Pacific  coast  were  not  yet  dreamed  of. 

Mr.  Gallatin  perfectly  understood  the  range  of 
his  own  powers.  He  said  of  himself :  — 

"If  I  have  met  with  any  success,  either  in  public 
bodies,  as  an  executive  officer,  or  in  foreign  negotiations, 
it  has  been  exclusively  through  a  patient  and  most 
thorough  investigation  of  all  the  attainable  facts,  and  a 
/cautious  application  of  these  to  the  questions  under  dis 
cussion.  .  .  .  Long  habit  has  given  me  great  facility  in 
collating,  digesting,  and  extracting  complex  documents, 
but  I  am  not  hasty  in  drawing  inferences  ;  the  arrange 
ment  of  the  facts  and  arguments  is  always  to  me  a  con 
siderable  labor,  and  though  aiming  at  nothing  more  than 
perspicuity  and  brevity,  I  am  a  very  slow  writer." 

Mr.  Gallatin 's  manuscripts  and  drafts  show  long 
and  minute  labor  in  their  well  considered  and 
abundant  alterations.  Referring  on  one  occasion 
to  his  habit  of  reasoning,  Mr.  Gallatin  remarked, 
that  of  all  processes  that  of  analogy  is  the  most 
dangerous,  yet  that  which  he  habitually  used; 
that  it  required  the  greatest  possible  number  of 
facts.  This  is  the  foundation  of  philology,  and  his 
understanding  of  its  method  and  its  dangers  is  the 
reason  of  his  success  in  this  branch  of  science. 

The  difficulty  experienced  in  establishing  any 
literary  or  scientific  institutions  in  New  York  was 
very  great.  An  effort  made  in  1830,  which  Mr. 
Oallatin  favored,  to  establish  a  literary  periodical 


896  ALBERT  GALLATIN. 

failed,  not  on  account  of  the  pecuniary  difficulties, 
but  from  the  impossibility  of  uniting  a  sufficient 
number  of  able  cooperators.  But  Mr  Gallatin's 
interest  in  literature  was  not  as  great  as  in  science.1 

In  1841  a  national  institution  for  the  promotion 
of  science  was  organized  at  Washington.  The  co 
operation  of  Mr.  Gallatin  was  invited,  but  the 
society  had  a  short  existence.  In  1843  Mr.  Gal 
latin  was  chosen  president  of  the  New  York  His 
torical  Society.  His  inaugural  address  is  an  epi 
tome  of  political  wisdom.  Pronounced  at  any 
crisis  of  our  history,  it  would  have  become  a 
text  for  the  student.  In  this  sketch  he  analyzed 
the  causes  which  contributed  to  form  our  national 
character  and  to  establish  a  government  founded 
on  justice  and  on  equal  rights.  He  showed  how,, 
united  by  a  common  and  imminent  danger,  the 
thirteen  States  succeeded  in  asserting  and  obtain 
ing  independence  without  the  aid  of  a  central  and 
efficient  government,  and  the  difficulties  which 
were  encountered  when  a  voluntary  surrender  of 
a  part  of  their  immense  sovereignty  became  neces 
sary  as  a  condition  of  national  existence.  He  said 
that  the  doctrine  that  all  powers  should  emanate 
from  the  people  is  not  a  question  of  expediency. 

In  this  address  he  summed  up  the  reasons  why 

1  His  favorite  novel  was  The  Antiquary,  which  he  read  once  a 
year.  Novels,  he  said,  should  be  read,  the  last  chapter  first,  in 
order  that  appreciation  of  the  style  should  not  be  lost  in  the  in 
terest  excited  by  the  story. 


SOCIETY  -  LITERATURE  -  SCIENCE.          397 

Washington  exercised  such  a  beneficial  influence 
upon  the  destinies  of  his  country.     In  a  confiden 
tial  letter  to  his  wife  in  1797,  he  expressed  an 
opinion  that  the  father  of  his  country  was  not  a 
good-natured  and  amiable  man,  but  time  had  mel 
lowed  these  recollections  and  softened  the  asperity 
of  this  judgment.     Washington  had  not,  he  said 
(in  1813),  4  an  extraordinary  amount  of  acquired 
knowledge ;  he  was  neither  a  classical  scholar,  nor 
a  man  of  science,  nor  was  he  endowed  with  the 
powers  of  eloquence,  nor  with  other  qualities  more 
strong  than  solid,  which  might  be  mentioned ;  but 
he  had  a  profound    and   almost  innate  sense  of 
justice,  on  all  public  occasions  a  perfect  control 
of   his  strong   passions,1  above  all   a    most  com 
plete  and  extraordinary  self-abnegation.    Personal 
consequences  and    considerations    were  not  even 
thought  of,   they  never   crossed   his    mind,  they 
were  altogether  obliterated.'    Mr.   Gallatin   held 
that  "  the  Americans  had  a  right  to  be  proud  of 
Washington,  because  he  was  selected  and   main 
tained  during  his  whole  career  by  the  people  — 
never  could  he  have  been  thus  chosen  and  con 
stantly  supported  had  he  not  been  the  type  and 
representative  of  the  American  people." 

The    commemoration   of   the    fortieth  anniver- 

1  Mr.  Gallatin's  assertion,  which  corresponded  with  that  of  Jef 
ferson,  that  Washington  had  naturally  strong  passions,  but  had 
attained  complete  mastery  over  them,  is  quoted  by  the  Earl  of 
Stanhope  (Lord  Mahon)  in  his  famous  eulogy  on  Washington's 
attributes. 


398  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

sary  of  the  foundation  of  the  New  York  Historical 
Society,  November,  1844,  was  an  occasion  of  un 
usual  interest.  John  Romeyn  Brodhead,  who  had 
just  returned  from  the  Hague  with  the  treasures 
of  New  Netherland  history  gathered  during  his 
mission,  was  the  orator  of  the  day.  The  venera 
ble  John  Quincy  Adams,  Mr.  Gallatin's  old  asso 
ciate  at  Ghent,  was  present.  After  the  address, 
which  was  delivered  at  the  Church  of  the  Mes 
siah  on  Broadway,  the  society  and  its  guests 
crossed  the  street  to  the  New  York  Hotel,  where 
a  banquet  awaited  them.  Mr.  Gallatin  retired 
early,  leaving  the  chair  to  the  first  vice-president, 
Mr.  Win.  Beach  Lawrence.  After  he  had  left  the 
room,  Mr.  Adams,  speaking  to  a  toast  to  the  ar 
chaeologists  of  America,  said :  "  Mr.  Gallatin,  in 
sending  to  me  the  invitations  of  the  society,  added 
the  expression  of  his  desire  '  to  shake  hands  with 
me  once  more  in  this  world.'  "  Mr.  Adams  could 
not  but  respond  to  his  request.  In  his  remarks 
he  said :  — 

"  I  have  lived  long,  sir,  in  this  world,  and  I  have  been 
connected  with  all  sorts  of  men,  of  all  sects  and  descrip 
tions.  I  have  been  in  the  public  service  for  a  great 
part  of  my  life,  and  filled  various  offices  of  trust,  in 
conjunction  with  that  venerable  gentleman,  Albert  Gal 
latin.  I  have  known  him  half  a  century.  In  many 
things  we  differed ;  on  many  questions  of  public  inter 
est  and  policy  we  were  divided,  and  in  the  history  of 
parties  in  this  country  there  is  no  man  from  whom  I 


SOCIETY  —  LITERATURE  —  SCIENCE.  399 

have  so  widely  differed  as  from  him.  But  in  other 
things  we  have  harmonized  ;  and  now  there  is  no  man 
with  whom  1  more  thoroughly  agree  on  all  points,  than 
I  do  with  him.  But  one  word  more  let  me  say,  before 
I  leave  you  and  him,  birds  of  passage  as  we  are,  bound 
to  a  warmer  and  more  congenial  clime,  — that  among  all 
public  men  with  whom  I  have  been  associated  in  the 
course  of  my  political  life,  whether  agreeing  or  differing 
in  opinion  from  him,  I  have  always  found  him  to  be  an 
honest  and  honorable  man." 

In  the  road  to  harmony  Mr.  Adams  had  to  do 
the  travelling.  Mr.  Gallatin  never  changed  his 
political  opinions.  The  political  career  of  the  two 
men  offered  this  singular  contrast.  Adams,  dis 
satisfied  with  his  party,  passed  into  opposition  — 
Gallatin,  though  at  variance  with  the  policy  of  the 
administration  of  which  he  made  a  part,  held  his 
fealty,  and  confined  himself  to  the  operations  of 
his  own  bureau. 

For  a  period  far  beyond  the  allotted  years  of 
man  Mr.  Gallatin  retained  the  elasticity  of  his 
physical  nature  as  well  as  bis  mental  perspicacity. 
In  middle  age  he  was  slight  of  figure,  his  height 
about  five  feet  ten  inches,  his  form  compact  and 
of  nervous  vigor.  His  complexion  was  Italian  ;  * 
his  expression  keen  ;  his  nose  long,  prominent ; 
his  mouth  small,  fine  cut,  and  mobile  ;  his  eyes 
hazel,  and  penetrative ;  his  skull  a  model  for  the 

1  The  Gallatins  claim  to  descend  from  one  Caflatinus,  a  Roman 
Consul. 


400  ALBERT  GALLAT1N. 

sculptor.  Thus  he  appears  in  the  portrait  painted 
by  Gilbert  Stuart  about  the  time  that  he  took 
charge  of  the  Treasury  Department ;  he  was  then 
about  forty  years  of  age.  In  the  fine  portrait  by 
William  H.  Powell,  taken  from  life  in  1843,  and 
preserved  in  the  gallery  of  the  New  York  His 
torical  Society,  these  characteristics  appear  in 
stronger  outline.  Monsieur  de  Bacourt,1  the  liter 
ary  executor  of  Talleyrand,  who  was  the  French 
Ambassador  to  the  United  States  in  1840,  paid  a 
visit  to  Mr.  Gallatin  in  that  year,  and  describes 
him  as  "a  beau  vieillard  de  quatre-vingt  aiis," 
who  has  fully  preserved  his  faculties.  Bacourt 
alludes  to  his  remarkable  face,  with  its  clear,  fine 
cut  features,  and  his  "  physiognomic  pleine  de 
finesse  ;  "  and  dwells  also  upon  the  ease  and  charm 
of  his  conversation. 

As  his  life  slowly  drew  to  its  close,  one  after 
another  of  the  few  of  his  old  friends  who  re 
mained  dropped  from  the  road.  Early  in  1848 
Adams  fell  in  harness,  on  the  floor  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  ;  Lord  Ashburton  died  in  May. 
Finally,  nearest,  dearest  of  all,  the  companion  of 
his  triumphs  and  disappointments,  the  sharer  of 
his  honors  and  his  joys,  his  wife,  was  taken  from 
him  by  the  relentless  hand.  The  summer  of 
1849  found  him  crushed  by  this  last  affliction,  and 
awaiting  his  own  summons  of  release.  He  was 
taken  to  Mount  Bonaparte,  the  country-seat  of 

1  Souvenirs  d'un  Diplomate.    Paris,  1882. 


SOCIETY  —  LITERATURE  —  SCIENCE.  401 

his  son-in-law,  at  Astoria  on  Long  Island,  where 
he  died  in  his  daughter's  arms  on  Sunda}',  Au 
gust  12,  1849.  The  funeral  services  were  held  in 
Trinity  Church  on  the  Tuesday  following,  and  his 
body  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  Nicholson  vault,1  in 
the  old  graveyard  adjoining.  The  elegant  monu 
ment  erected  during  his  lifetime  is  one  of  the  at 
tractive  features  of  this  venerable  cemetery,  in 
whose  dust  mingle  the  remains  of  the  temple  of 
no  more  elevated  spirit  than  his  own.  The  season 
was  a  terrible  one  —  the  cholera  was  raging,  the 
city  was  deserted.  In  the  general  calamity  private 
sorrow  disappeared,  or  the  occasion  would  have 
been  marked  by  a  demonstration  of  public  grief 
and  of  public  honor.  As  the  tidings  went  from 
city  to  city,  and  country  to  country,  the  friends 
of  science,  of  that  universal  wisdom  which  knows 
neither  language  nor  race,  paused  in  their  investi 
gations  to  pay  respectful  homage  to  his  character, 
his  intellect,  and  to  that  without  which  either  or 
both  in  combination  are  inadequate  to  success  — 
his  labor  in  the  field. 

On  October  2,  1849,  at  the  first  meeting  of  the 
Historical  Society  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Gallatin, 
Mr.  Luther  Bradish,  the  presiding  officer,  spoke  of 
him  in  impressive  words,  as  the  last  link  connect 
ing  the  present  with  the  past.  He  dwelt  upon 
the  peculiar  pleasure  with  which  the  presence  of 

1  This  was  the  vault  of  the  Witter  family,  a  daughter  of  which 
Commodore  Nicholson  married, 
21 


402  ALBERT  GALL  AT  IN. 

Mr.  Gallatin  was  always  hailed,  and  the  peculiar 
interest  it  gave  to  the  proceedings  of  the  society, 
and  many  an  eye  was  dimmed,  as  he  recalled  the 
venerable  form,  the  beautifully  classic  head,  the 
countenance  ever  beaming  with  intelligence,  and 
summed  up  the  long  and  useful  career  of  the  de 
parted  sage  in  these  impressive  words  :  — 

"  The  name  of  Albert  Gallatin  is  emphatically  a  name 
of  history.  Few  men  have  lived  in  any  age  whose  bi 
ographies  have  been  so  intimately  connected  with  the 
history  of  their  country.  Living  in  one  of  the  most  in 
teresting  periods  of  the  world,  a  period  of  great  events, 
of  the  discussion  of  great  principles  and  the  settlement  of 
great  interests,  almost  the  whole  of  his  long  and  active 
life  was  passed  in  public  service  amidst  those  events  and 
in  those  discussions.  .  .  .  For  nearly  half  a  century  he 
was  almost  constantly  employed  in  the  public  service ;  al 
most  every  department  of  that  service  has  received  the 
benefit  of  his  extraordinary  talents  and  his  varied  and 
extensive  and  accurate  knowledge.  Whether  in  legisla 
tion,  in  finance,  or  in  diplomacy,  he  has  been  equally 
distinguished  in  all.  In  all  or  in  either  he  has  had  few 
equals  and  still  fewer  superiors." 

To  Jeremy  Bentham  Mr.  Gallatin  acknowledged 
himself  indebted,  as  his  master  in  the  art  of  legis 
lation  ;  but  from  whatever  ground  he  drew  his 
maxims  of  government,  they  were  reduced  to  har 
mony  in  the  crucible  of  his  own  intelligence  by 
the  processes  of  that  brain  which  Spurzheim  pro- 


SOCIETY— LITERATURE  — SCIENCE.  403 

nounced  capital,1  and  Dumont  held  to  be  the  best 
head  in  America.  In  that  massive  and  profound 
structure  lay  faculties  of  organization  and  adminis 
tration  which  mark  the  Latin  and  Italian  mind  in 
its  highest  form  of  intellectual  development. 

His  moral  excellence  was  no  less  conspicuous 
than  his  intellectual  power.  He  had  a  profound 
sense  of  justice,  a  love  of  liberty,  and  an  unfalter 
ing  belief  in  the  capacity  of  the  human  race  for 
self-rule.  Versed  in  the  learning  of  centuries, 
and  familiar  with  every  experiment  of  govern 
ment,  he  was  full  of  the  liberal  spirit  of  his  age. 
To  a  higher  degree  than  any  American,  native  or 
foreign  born,  unless  Franklin,  with  whose  broad 
nature  he  had  many  traits  in  common,  Albert 
Gallatin  deserves  the  proud  title,  aimed  at  by 
many,  reached  by  few,  of  Citizen  of  the  World. 

1  "  In  my  youth  the  fashion  was  to  decide  in  conformity  with 
Lavater's  precepts  ;  then  came  Camper's  facial  angle,  which  gave 
a  decided  superiority  to  the  white  man  and  monkey ;  and  both 
have  been  superseded  by  the  bumps  of  the  skull.  This  criterion 
is  that  which  suits  me  best,  for  Spurzzeim  declared  I  had  a 
capital  head,  which  he  might  without  flattery  say  to  everybody. 
Gallatin  to  Lewis  T.  Cist  of  Cincinnati,  November  21,  1837. 


INDEX. 


ADAMS,  HENRY,  Ghent  Treaty,  335. 

Adams,  John,  convenes  Congress,  136  ; 
message,  137 ;  answer  to  address, 
141 ;  entertains  members,  143  ;  ad 
dress,  143;  entertains  the  House, 
144 ;  message  on  French  outrages, 
152  ;  on  French  relations,  158 ;  ad 
dress,  163;  on  permanent  seat  of 
government,  167  ;  New  England 
solid  for,  169  ;  breach  with  Hamil 
ton,  183. 

&.dams,  John  Quincy,  on  Smith's  ap 
pointment,  305  ;  minister  to  Russia, 
peace  commissioner,  312  ;  diplo 
matic  trainmg,  313  ;  contrasted  with 
Gallatin,  314;  disputes  with  Clay, 
334;  persistence  in  fisheries  ques 
tion,  334  ;  minister  to  England,  338  ; 
joins  Gallatin  at  London,  338  ;  sec 
retary  of  state,  346 ;  difference  with 
Gallatin,  350  ;  opinion  of  Gallatin, 
351 ;  Gallatin's  opinion  of,  351,  369  ; 
Crawford  complains  of,  351  ;  nego 
tiates  convention  with  Neuville,  352  ; 
on  boundary  question,  359 ;  con 
gratulates  Gallatin,  360  ;  tribute  to 
Gallatin,  398. 

Adams,  William,  British  commissioner 
to  Ghent,  328. 

Address  to  the  President,  108,  109, 
132,  137,  164. 

Adet,  French  minister,  his  impudence, 
132  ;  insults  the  government,  138. 

Aix  la  Chappelle,  congress  of,  349. 

Alexander,  Emperor,  mediation  of, 
309,  319,  326,  327. 

Algiers,  treaty  with,  121. 

Alien  Bill,  157,  168. 

Allegre,  Sophie,  married  to  Gallatin, 
31 ;  dies,  31. 

Allen,  M.  C.,  Connecticut,  140,  155. 

Ames.  Fisher,  M.  C.,  Massachusetts, 
124,'  125,  132,  133,  137. 

Anti-Federalists,  38,  40. 

Apollon,  French  vessel,  seized,  350. 

Appropriations,  permanent  footing, 
111;  principle  of,  debated,  112; 
specific,  254. 


Army  establishment,  127,  134. 
Ashburton,  Lord.   See  Alexander  Bar* 

ing. 
Astor,  John  Jacob,  221,  268,  278,  297, 

298. 

Astoria,  298. 
"Aurora,"  the,  107,  296,  307,  308. 

BACHE,  FRANKLIN,  4. 

Bache,  editor  of  "Aurora,"  107. 

Badollet,  Jean,  college  companion  of 
Gallatin,  5,  9 ;  teaches  theology  at 
Geneva,  26  ;  joins  Gallatin  at  Clare's, 
27  ;  established  at  Greensburg,  28 ; 
register  of  land  office,  297. 

Bathurst,  Lord,  331. 

Bank,  Jefferson  opposed  to,  290 ;  of 
England,  256;  of  France,  256;  of 
North  America,  178,  256,  257,  266  ; 
of  the  United  States  proposed  by 
Hamilton,  181,  259;  opposed  by  Jef 
ferson,  259;  incorporated,  260; 
operations  of,  261 ;  renewal  of  char 
ter  refused,  263  ;  influence  of,  267  ; 
Astor  unfriendly  to,  268  ;  conse 
quences  of  dissolution,  269  ;  second 
bank  proposed  by  Dallas,  274 ;  bill 
vetoed,  274  ;  bank  chartered,  274  ; 
Jefferson  and  Madison's  course  con 
cerning,  275  ;  of  Pennsylvania  char 
tered,  280  ;  management  of,  281 ; 
collapse  of,  285. 

Banking  system,  of  United  States,  256 ; 
national,  265  ;  essay  on  by  Gallatin, 
277  ;  state,  265,  267,  272. 

Banks,  suspension  of,  1815,  270,  282 ; 
resumption,  276,  285. 

Baring,  Alexander,  Lord  Ashburton, 
informs  Gallatin  of  English  views, 
317  ;  friendship  for,  322  ;  invites 
him  to  London,  323  ;  envoy  to  United 
States,  362;  visits  Gallatin,  363; 
death  of,  400. 

Bartlett,  John  Russell,  anecdotes  of 
Gallatin,  14,  22. 

Bayard,  James  A.,  M.  C.,  Delaware, 
Federalist.  137  ;  in  Jefferson's  elec 
tion,  172  ;  envoy  to  Russia,  312; 


406 


INDEX. 


views  on  impressment,  316;  min 
ister  to  Russia,  338. 

Bentham,  Jeremy,  Gallatin's  master 
in  the  art  of  legislation,  402. 

Berlin  and  Milan  decrees,  344. 

Blount,  William,  senator,  142. 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  136,  143,  166, 
328,  338,  343. 

Bonaparte,  Jerome,  343. 

Boston,  French  cafe  at,  12  ;  society  in 
1780,  13. 

Boundary  question,  331-334,  346,  359. 

Boundary,  northeast,  359,  361. 

Brackenridge,  Judge,  at  Washington 
County  anti-excise  meeting,  71  ;  Par 
kinson's  Ferry  meeting,  73  ;  account 
of  Whiskey  Insurrection,  73  ;  elected 
to  Congress,  96. 

Braddock's  Field,  meeting  of  malcon 
tents  on,  74. 

Bradford,  David,  leader  in  Whiskey 
Insurrection,  51  ;  represents  Wash 
ington  County  in  Pennsylvania  Leg 
islature,  54  ;  draws  remonstrance  to 
Congress,  54  ;  despised  by  Gallatin, 
56 ;  stops  U.  S.  mail,  72  ;  urges  vio 
lence,  72 ;  countermands  rendez 
vous,  72;  again  takes  lead,  73;  his 
appearance  on  Braddock's  Field, 
74 ;  delegate  to  Parkinson's  Ferry 
convention,  81 ;  excepted  from  am 
nesty  office,  87. 

Bradish,  Luther,  tribute  to  Gallatin, 
401. 

Breading,  Nicholas,  37. 

Brodhead,  John  Romeyn,  oration  of, 
398. 

Brownsville,  Pa.,  28  ;  anti-excise  meet 
ing  at,  52. 

Burr,  Aaron,  vice-president,  172. 

CALHOUN,  John  C.,  Gallatin's  opinion 
of,  368  ;  striking  remark  of,  391. 

California,  gold  discovered  in,  366. 

Campbell,  George  W.,  report  of, 
drafted  by  Gallatin,  302,  314 ;  sec 
retary  of  treasury,  324. 

Canning,  George,  policy  of  delay,  306  ; 
order  in  council,  253  ;  temper  of 
his  ministry,  357,  358  ;  death  of, 
359;  courtesy  to  Gallatin,  361. 

Carnahan,  account  of  Whiskey  Insur 
rection,  93. 

Castlereagh,  Lord,  sets  aside  Russian 
mediation,  315 ;  second  refusal  of, 
323 ;  arrives  in  London,  327  ;  passes 
through  Ghent,  330  ;  negotiates  com 
mercial  convention,  338;  friendly 
dispositions,  347. 

Chase,  Salmon  P.,  secretary  of  treas 
ury,  his  financial  plan,  203,  265. 

Chateaubriand,    minister   of    foreign 


affairs,  continues  negotiations,  353  ,• 
quotes  Gallatin,  358. 

Chesapeake,  frigate,  captured  by  Leo- 
pard,  232. 

Chevalier,  Michel,  financial  essays, 
232. 

Chouteau,  Pierre  Louis,  297,  397. 

Circourt,  Count  de,  reviews  Gallatin's 
synopsis  of  Indian  tribes,  391. 

Clare's,  Fayette  County,  residence  of 
Gallatin  and  Savary,  25. 

Clay,  Henry,  commissioner  to  Ghent, 
324 ;  dispute  with  Adams,  334  ;  per. 
sistence  on  the  Mississippi  naviga. 
tion  question,  334  ;  negotiation  with 
Castlereagh,  338  ;  opinion  of  the 
Panama  Congress,  354  ;  hampers 
Gallatin  with  instructions,  355  ;  dip 
lomatic  correspondence,  357  ;  Gal 
latin's  opinion  of,  369. 

Club,  the,  New  York,  379 ;  Gallatin's 
conversation  at,  381. 

Cobbett,  William,  famous  phrase  of, 
148. 

Columbia  College,  New  York,  382. 

Commissioners  to  Ghent,  American, 
appointed,  324:  Gallatin  added  to, 
324  ;  arrive  at  Ghent,  328  ;  consider 
mission  closed,  329;  British,  ar 
rive  at  Ghent,  328  :  their  absurd  de 
mands,  329 ;  ordered  to  moderate 
their  tone,  330. 

Constellation,  frigate,  128 ;  action  with 
La  Vengeance,  165. 

Constitution,  frigate,  128. 

Convention,  commercial,  with  France, 
354;  with  Great  Britain,  338;  re 
newed,  347  ;  renewed  indefinitely, 
359. 

Cook,  Edward,  81. 

Copenhagen,  described  by  Gallatin, 
312. 

Crawford,  W.  H.,  minister  to  France, 
solicits  aid  of  Emperor  Alexander, 
326  ;  complains  of  Adams,  351 ;  de 
sires  Gallatin  to  stand  for  vice-pres 
ident,  358;  Gallatin's  opinion  of, 
368;  stricken  with  paralysis,  370; 
nominated  for  president,  371. 

Cuba,  tripartite  agreement  concern 
ing,  358. 

Cumberland  road,  300. 

DALLAS,  Alexander  J.,  secretary  of 
treasury,  compared  with  Gallatin, 
29 ;  parentage  of,  60  ;  secretary  of 
state  for  Pennsylvania,  60 ;  intima 
cy  with  Gallatin,  60  ;  excursion  with 
Gallatin,  60  ;  on  internal  taxes,  244 ; 
appeals  to  the  banks,  273  ;  proposes 
a  National  Bank,  274  ;  resigns 
Treasury,  275. 


INDEX. 


407 


Dallas,  George  M.,  secretary  to  en 
voys,  312  ;  sent  to  London,  321. 

Davis,  Matthew  L.,  294. 

Dawson,  M.  C.,  on  sedition  law,  168. 

Dayton,  Jonathan,  speaker  of  House, 
101 ;  joins  Republican  opposition, 
101 ;  reelected  speaker,  137  ;  on  Ad 
ams's  message,  139 ;  returns  to  Fed 
eralists,  154;  silence  of,  158;  vote 
of  thanks  to,  163. 

Debt,  public,  "view  of  "by  Gallatin, 
191 ;  of  U.  S.,  178,  198,  202,  205  ; 
209,  212  ;  policy  of  reduction,  289. 

De  Lesdernier.     See  Lesdernier. 

Democratic  party,  rise  of,  371. 

Dexter,  Samuel,  secretary  of  treasury, 
183  ;  holds  over,  188. 

Duane,  William,  editor  of  "Aurora," 
296  ;  intimacy  with  Jefferson,  296  ; 
abuse  of  Gallatiu,  307,  308. 

Dumont,  Etienne,  college  companion 
of  Gallatin,  5  ;  translates  Bentham, 
5 ;  Gallatin's  opinion  of,  5 ;  invited 
by  Gallatin  to  America,  26  ;  in  Eng 
land,  337  ;  his  opinion  of  Gallatin, 

EAST  INDIES,  Dutch,  trade  of,  346. 
Edgar,  James,  83,  85,  92. 
Embargo  Act,  211,  302. 
Enforcement  Act,  303. 
Emigration,  extent  of,  to  U.  S.,  365. 
England,   Gallatin's    opinion    of    her 
diplomacy,  315  ;    her  true    policy, 

Erskine,  David  M.,  British  minister, 
negotiations  of,  306. 

Ethnological  Society,  American,  found 
ed  by  Gallatin,  392,  393;  publica 
tions  by,  393. 

Eustis,  William,  minister  to  Nether 
lands,  negotiates  treaty,  346. 

Excise  Bill,  Hamilton's,  opposed  in 
Pennsylvania,  50 ;  passed,  50  ;  op 
posed  in  western  counties,  51 ;  meet 
ings  in  opposition  to,  at  Brownsville, 
Washington,  and  Pittsburgh,  52,  53 ; 
violent  resolutions  against,  at  Wash 
ington  and  Pittsburgh,  52-54;  Hamil 
ton's  indignation  and  Washington's 
proclamation,  55 ;  offenders  against 
prosecuted,  55;  writs  served  and 
violent  resistance,  70. 

FAUCHET,  French  minister,  106,  138. 

Federal  Constitution  adopted,  34 ; 
Gallatin's  influence  against,  35  ;  op 
posed  and  ratified  in  Pennsylvania, 
35-37 ;  revised  by  Congress,  52 ; 
amendments  ratified,  42. 

Federal  convention,  its  action  ap 
proved  by  people,  35. 


Federal  party,  its  pride  In  Washing, 
ton  as  its  chief,  101;  its  leaders 
in  fourth  Congress,  102;  detests 
French  revolution,  104 ;  accused  as 
monarchists,  104;  holds  up  red  flag  of 
war,  122  ;  nominal  majority  in  fifth 
Congress,  137  ;  repudiates  charge  of 
British  influence,  138 ;  opposes  inter 
ference  with  Executive,  138 ;  regains 
majority  in  Senate,  143;  believes 
England  to  be  lost,  144  ;  New  Eng 
land  the  stronghold  of,  169 ;  break 
in,  183 ;  policy  to  strengthen  the 
government,  259;  leaves  no  diplo 
matic  discord,  290;  confines  office 
to  its  own  ranks'  290  ;  extinguished 
by  battle  of  New  Orleans,  371. 

Ferney,  the  retreat  of  Voltaire,  8. 

Few,  William,  Colonel,  of  Georgia,  62. 

Finance,  committee  of,  in  the  House, 
proposed  by  Gallatin,  origin  of  Ways 
and  Means  committee,  composition 
of,  110. 

Finances,  United  States,  before  Mor 
ris,  177  :  relation  of  coin  to  paper  in 
1778, 177  ;  plan  of  Morris,  178  ;  abo 
lition  of  treasury  board,  178  ;  Hol 
land  loan  negotiated,  178;  public 
debt  1783,  Morris  retires,  179 ;  new 
board  of  treasury  1784-1788,  Treas 
ury  Department  established,  180; 
Hamilton's  first  report,  180 ;  fund 
ing  resolutions,  181  ;  sinking  fund 
established,  182 ;  Wolcott  succeeds 
Hamilton,  183  ;  first  issue  of  U.  S. 
stock,  184  ;  Gallatin  takes  Treasury 
186 ;  his  estimate  for  1802,  197  • 
dispute  as  to  Treasury  balance,  197  ; 
management  of,  from  1800-1808, 
200;  purchase  of  Louisiana,  201; 
new  departure  in,  202;  report  of 
1801-1805,  204  ;  debt  funded,  205  : 
full  treasury  in  1807,  205  ;  reduction 
of  debt  1791-1808,  209  ;  deficiency 
reported,  210  ;  war  measures  of  Gal 
latin,  214 ;  treasury  notes  issued, 
214  ;  eleven  millions  loan  authorized, 
216;  twenty-one  millions  loan  au 
thorized,  219;  Gallatin  withdrawa 
from  Treasury,  222  ;  debt  in  1816, 
222;  Taney  removes  the  deposits, 
279;  Woodbury  establishes  sub- 
treasury,  282;  debt  extinguished, 
278-280. 

Finances  of  the  United  States,  pam 
phlet  by  Gallatin,  190. 

Financial  essays,  Gallatin's  report  of 
the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means 
of  Pennsylvania  Legislature,  189  ; 
sketch  of  the  finances  of  the  U.  S., 
190  ;  Views  of  the  Public  Debt,  etc., 
191 ;  Considerations  on  the  Currency 


408 


INDEX. 


and  Banking  System  of  United  States, 
277  ;  Suggestions  on  the  Banks  and 
Currency  of  the  United  States,  28G. 

Findley,  James,  45. 

Findley,  William,  present  at  Parkin 
son's  Ferry,  72  ;  account  of  Whiskey 
Insurrection,  73. 

Fisheries,  question  of  the,  334,  335, 
346. 

Florida,  West,  acquisition  of,  295. 

France,  revolution  in,  32 ;  state  exe 
cutions,  58  ;  reaction  of  revolution 
onU.  S.,59;  Adet's  impudence  weak 
ens  U.  S.  attachment  for,  132 ;  tri 
color  presented  to  the  U.  S. ,  134  ;  her 
services  to  America  and  situation  in 
1796,  policy  of  the  French  Directory, 
136 ;  American  flag  presented  to 
convention,  136  ;  Directory  suspend 
relations  with  U.  S.,  136  ;  successes 
of  Bonaparte,  136  ;  Pinckney.  U.  S. 
minister,  ordered  to  leave,  136  ;  dis 
puted  articles  of  treaty  with,  to  be 
enforced,  141 ;  attitude  of  Directory 
unsatisfactory  to  U.  S.  Republicans, 
144  ;  outrages  on  American  com 
merce,  152  ;  relations  with,  improve 
under  First  Consul,  164;  Gallatin's 
opinion  of  her  diplomacy,  315  ;  con 
dition  in  1815,  339  ;  declines  to  ad 
mit  right  of  search,  349. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  gives  letter  of 
introduction  to  Richard  Bache  in 
favor  of  young  Gallatin,  11. 

Free  trade,  Gallatin,  first  champion 
of,  in  U.  S.,  249  ;  convention  of  its 
friends,  249 ;  the  true  American  sys 
tem,  250. 

Friendship  Hill,  home  of  Gallatin,  27  ; 
neighboring  scenery,  29. 

Fund,  sinking,  established,  182 ;  Wol- 
cott's  report  on,  197  ;  permanent 
appropriation  for,  198  ;  processes  of, 
213  :  true  principle  of,  215. 

Fur  Company,  American,  charter  to 
Astor,  298. 

GALLATIN,  ALBERT.  Early  life.  Birth, 
parentage,  family,  death  of  his  par 
ents,  adoption  by  Mile.  Pictet,  1, 
2 ;  early  instruction,  academic  ed 
ucation,  2-5  ;  college  companions,  4, 
5  ;  engaged  in  tuition,  5  ;  visits  Vol 
taire,  3 ;  declines  commission  in 
Hessian  service,  8  ;  quarrels  with  his 
grandmother,  9 ;  plans  of  emigra 
tion,  9  ;  secretly  leaves  Geneva  with 
Serre,  10  ;  arrives  at  Nantes  on 
French  coast,  10  ;  invests  small  cap 
ital  in  tea,  12  ;  sails  for  America,  11 ; 
lands  at  Cape  Ann,  rides  to  Boston, 
puts  up  at  a  French  cafe, 12  ;  walks 


to  the  Blue  Hills,  13  ;  meets  Mme. 
De  Lesdernier ,  a  compatriot,  14 ; 
voyage  to  Machias,  life  there,  15- 
17  ;  commands  earthwork  at  Passa- 
maquoddy,  16;  meets  La  Pe"rouse, 
17  ;  returns  to  Boston,  teaches 
French  in  Boston,  tutor  at  Harvard 
College,  17, 18  ;  leaves  Boston,  passes 
through  New  York,  arrives  at  Phila 
delphia,  is  joined  by,  and  dissolves 
connection  with  Serre.  19,  20  ; 
meets  Savary,  accompanies  him  to 
Richmond,  joins  him  in  land  specu 
lations,  19-21  ;  returns  to  Philadel 
phia,  22  ;  conducts  exploring  party 
to  Virginia,  22  ;  makes  headquar 
ters  at  Clare's  on  George's  Creek, 
Fayette  County,  Pa.,  builds  log 
hut  and  opens  a  country  store,  22  ; 
meets  General  Washington,  23  ; 
spends  winter  in  Richmond,  account 
of  Virginia  hospitality,  24 ;  meets 
Patrick  Henry,  25  ;  returns  on  horse 
back  to  Clare's,  joined  there  by  Sa 
vary,  25  ;  takes  oath  of  allegiance 
to  Virginia,  25 ;  establishes  residence 
in  Springfield  township,  returns  to 
Richmond,  25;  settles  permanent 
ly  at  George's  Creek,  is  joined  by 
Badollet,  27  ;  purchases  Friendship 
Hill,  27  ;  rumor  of  his  death  reaches 
Geneva,  28  ;  attains  his  majority  of 
twenty-five  years,  receives  draft  for 
his  patrimony,  28  ;  offers  from  John 
Marshall,  advice  from  Patrick  Hen 
ry,  29  ;  visits  Richmond  and  Phila 
delphia,  30  ;  journeys  to  Maine,  30  ; 
marries  Sophie  Allegre,  31 ;  loses 
his  wife,  31 ;  is  disheartened,  32. 

In  Pennsylvania  Legislature. 
Early  maturity  and  political  opin 
ions,  33-35 ;  influence  on  Pennsylva 
nia  convention  of  ratification,  37 ; 
delegate  to  Harrisburg  conference 
of  anti-Federalists,  draws  resolu 
tions  for,  38-40  ;  delegate  to  Penn 
sylvania  state  constitutional  con 
vention,  42  ;  account  of,  44  ;  morbid 
melancholy  and  desire  to  leave 
America,  44  ;  indifference  to  society, 
45  ;  elected  to  Pennsylvania  Legisla 
ture  and  reflected,  account  of  his 
service,  45-47  :  report  of  Ways  and 
Means  Committee  the  foundation  of 
his  reputation,  47  ;  comparison  of 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania  society, 
49 ;  draws  Pennsylvania's  resolu 
tions  against  Hamilton's  excise  bill, 
49  ;  clerk  of  meeting  at  Brownsville 
in  opposition  to  bill,  52  ;  delegate 
to  meeting  at  Pittsburgh  and  secre 
tary,  52 ;  draws  remonstrance  to 


INDEX. 


409 


Congress,  55 ;  returns  to  Pennsylva 
nia  Legislature,  action  there,  56,  57. 

United  States  Senate. — Tempted 
to  visit  Geneva,  58  ;  opiuion  of  state 
executions  in  France,  58 ;  elected 
senator  of  the  United  States  for 
Pennsylvania,  60  ;  friendship  for 
Alexander  J.  Dallas,  60  ;  joins  Dal 
las  in  a  summer  journey,  meets  Han 
nah  Nicholson,  marries  her,  61  ;  as 
sociates  his  brother-in-law  in  his 
western  company,  establishes  glass 
works  at  New  Geneva,  62  ;  takes 
seat  as  senator,  62  ;  election  protest 
ed  against  for  insufficient  evidence, 
63  ;  is  declared  to  be  disqualified, 
65  ;  course  in  the  Senate  annoys  the 
Federalists,  excites  lasting  enmity 
of  friends  of  Hamilton,  67,  68. 

Whiskey  Insurrection.  Out  of 
public  life,  visits  Fayette  with  his 
wife,  69  ;  peace  disturbed  by  out 
break  of  Whiskey  Insurrection,  70  ; 
attends  meeting  at  Uniontown,  rec 
ommends  submission  to  the  law, 
71  ;  estimate  of  meeting  at  Brad- 
dock's  Field,  77  ;  course  during  ex 
citement,  78 ;  delegate  to  conven 
tion  at  Brownsville  and  secretary, 
opposes  violent  proceedings,  one  of 
committee  on  resolutions,  82  -  84  ; 
saves  western  country  from  civil 
war,  84  ;  vindicated  from  charges  of 
John  C .  Hamilton,  86  ;  hastens  sub 
mission  of  Fayette  County,  draws 
declaration  for  townships,  appeals 
to  Governor  for  delay  in  march  of 
troops,  88-90  ;  misjudged  by  Fed 
eral  leaders,  efforts  to  indict  him 
fail,  92 ;  long  continuance  of  Fed 
eral  hatred,  93  ;  relates  Dallas's  ex 
perience  as  a  trooper,  95  ;  returns 
to  Fayette,  96  ;  reflected  to  Penn 
sylvania  Assembly,  96  ;  elected  to 
Congress,  96  ;  election  to  Assembly 
contested,  96;  speech  on  western 
elections,  97 ;  his  only  political  sin, 
97  ;  election  declared  void,  97  ;  his 
political  acuteness,  98  ;  reflected  to 
the  Assembly,  98 ;  summoned  be 
fore  grand  jury  as  witness  for  gov 
ernment,  99  ;  draws  petition  to 
Washington  for  pardon  of  an  offend 
er,  99  ;  loyalty  to  constituents,  99. 

Member  of  Congress.  Takes  seat 
in  Congress  in  Republican  opposi 
tion,  103  ;  proposes  measures  to  con 
trol  Treasury,  moves  appointment 
of  Committee  of  Finance,  origin  of 
Ways  and  Means,  appointed  upon 
it,  109,  110  ;  insists  on  permanent 
footing  for  appropriations,  111 ;  de 


tails  of  his  plan,  112 ;  supports  call 
for  papers  in  Jay  treaty,  114  ;  elab 
orate  speech  on  constitutional  ques 
tion,  116 ;  his  view  of  congressional 
power  sustained  by  Madison,  117 ; 
appointed  to  carry  call  to  the  Presi 
dent,  118;  acknowledged  by  Feder 
alists  as  leading  debate  on  Republi 
can  side,  118;  gradually  assumes 
leadership,  119;  insists  on  separate 
consideration  of  treaties,  122  ;  ob 
jects  to  ratification  of  Jay  treaty, 
declares  that  '  free  ships  make  free 
goods, '  122  :  charges  timidity  upon 
the  negotiators,  sharply  answered 
by  Tracy,  123  ;  opinion  of  Indians 
on  frontier,  126  ;  urges  power  to  the 
President  to  protect  American  sea 
men  from  impressment,  126;  sug 
gests  plan  for  sale  of  western  lands, 
126 ;  attacks  military  and  naval  es 
tablishment,  127 ;  denies  need  of  a 
navy,  opposes  appropriations  for  fri 
gates,  127,  128  ;  urges  liquidation  of 
indebtedness  of  the  U.  S.  to  U.  S. 
Bank,  128 ;  personally  abused  by 
Sedgwick,  129 ;  opposes  principle 
of  a  national  debt,  130 ;  correctness 
of  his  statements  challenged  by  W. 
Smith,  130  ;  objects  to  adjournment 
to  call  upon  President  on  his  birth 
day,  130  ;  is  complained  of  by  Wol- 
cott,  131 ;  reflected  to  Congress, 
131 ;  takes  reins  of  the  Republican 
party,  132 ;  distinguishes  between 
President  and  administration,  votes 
the  address,  133 ;  appointed  chair 
man  of  House  committee  of  confer 
ence  on  state  indebtedness,  133 ; 
insists  on  reduction  of  military  ap 
propriations  and  opposes  them  for 
the  navy,  134;  secures  passage  of 
bill  confining  Treasury  expenditure, 
134;  the  main-stay  of  Republican 
party,  1 37 ;  opposes  debate  on  for 
eign  relations  in  critical  situation  of 
affairs,  138  ;  proposes  ultimatum  to 
France,  139  ;  votes  with  the  Feder 
alists  and  carries  his  party  with 
him,  139  ;  struggles  to  restrict  ap 
propriations  and  keep  the  frigates 
in  port,  141,  142 ;  details  of  other 
action,  142  ;  dines  with  President, 
143;  presents  memorial  from  Qua 
kers  in  regard  to  slavery,  insists  on 
reference  to  a  committee,  145  ; 
views  as  to  legal  tender  of  foreign 
coins,  145  ;  estimate  of  specie  in 
United  States,  145;  opposes  expul 
sion  of  Lyon,  146  ;  objects  to  politi 
cal  foreign  intercourse,  147  ;  an 
nounces  Republican  theory  of  the 


410 


INDEX: 


nature  of  the  government  and  the 
powers  of  the  Executive  and  Con 
gress,  his  speech  printed  by  the 
party,  152 ;  declares  critical  situa 
tion  of  the  country  and  demands  a 
policy  of  peace  or  war,  153  ;  opposes 
authority  to  President  to  arm  con 
voys,  15-4  ;  opposes  suspension  of 
commercial  intercourse  with  France, 
156  ;  opposes  sedition  bill  as  uncon 
stitutional,  157  ;  retorts  upon  Har 
per,  157  ;  objects  to  declaration  of 
a  state  of  relations  by  legislation, 
158;  his  restriction  of  the  Treas 
ury  Department  complained  of  by 
Wolcott,  159  ;  opposes  alien  and  se 
dition  laws,  1G6 ;  courage  testified 
to  by  Jefferson,  1G3  ;  leads  opposi 
tion  in  sixth  Congress,  164  ;  votes 
with  the  Federalists  to  suspend 
commercial  intercourse  with  France 
and  carries  his  friends  with  him, 
165  ;  singular  instance  of  his  jeal 
ousy  of  interference  of  the  Senate 
with  money  bill,  166 ;  opposes  con 
tinuance  of  act  suspending  commer 
cial  intercourse  with  France,  168 ; 
his  position  in  presidential  contest, 
169 ;  suffers  from  bargain  between 
Jefferson  and  the  Federalists,  170; 
devises  plan  of  balloting  in  the 
House,  170 ;  peculiar  reasoning  as 
to  constitutional  powers,  170  ;  con 
gressional  services  recapitulated, 
174;  position  in  Republican  trium 
virate,  174. 

Secretary  of  the  Treasury  —  Fund 
ing.  Fame  as  a  financier,  176  ;  Jef 
ferson's  first  choice  for  the  Treas 
ury,  185  ;  most  obnoxious  to  Feder 
alists,  185  ;  informed  by  Jefferson  of 
his  cabinet,  185  ;  his  appointment 
a  party  necessity,  premature  an 
nouncement  by  the  newspapers,  nar 
row  personal  means,  hesitation  as  to 
acceptance,  186 ;  opinion  of  the 
post,  187  ;  doubts  of  confirmation, 
288  ;  appointment  confirmed,  ar 
rives  in  Washington,  enters  on  his 
duties,  188  ;  his  fitness  for  the  post, 
189 ;  first  connection  with  finances, 
189 ;  his  sketch  of  finances  of  the 
U.  S.  analyzed,  191  ;  views  of  pub 
lic  debt,  etc.,  analyzed,  191 ;  sub 
mits  to  Jefferson  rough  outlines  of 
financial  situation,  192  ;  laborious 
arrangement  of  Treasury  state 
ments,  193 ;  logical  habits  of 
thoiight,  193  ;  submits  in  "  Notes  " 
to  Jefferson  synopsis  of  his  plan  of 
administration,  views  on  the  reduc 
tion  of  the  debt,  as  to  the  interde 


pendence  of  departments,  194, 195 ; 
insists  upon  accountability,  196 ; 
first  report  to  Congress,  1801,  de 
nies  surplus  in  the  Treasury,  merits 
of  this  controversy,  197,  198;  plan 
of  funding  through  permanent  ap 
propriation,  198  ;  review  of  manage 
ment  of  the  debt,  199  ;  dissatisfac 
tion  with  the  price  at  which  bonds 
for  Louisiana  purchase  were  placed, 
201 ;  insists  that  principal  of  the 
stock  be  paid  in  the  U.  S.,  202  ; 
results  of  four  years  service,  204  ; 
plans  of  conversion,  205  ;  reports  a 
full  treasury,  financial  recommenda 
tions,  205,  206  ;  describes  branches 
of  revenue  and  operation  of  direct 
and  indirect  taxes,  207  ;  opposes 
embargo,  draws  the  bill,  208 ;  pro 
visions  justified,  208,  209  ;  urged  by 
Jefferson  to  remain  in  cabinet,  his 
answer  to,  210  ;  announces  a  defi 
ciency,  211;  report  of  1811  notde- 
rndent,  212  ;  review  of  service  to 
tuary  1,  1812,  212  ;  gives  a  lesson 
of  finance,  213  ;  submits  a  war  bud 
get,  214  ;  reports  results  of  eleven 
millions  loan,  216  ;  proposes  issue  of 
treasury  notes,  216 ;  makes  last  an 
nual  statement,  and  last  report  to 
Commissioners  of  Sinking  Fund,  218, 
219  ;  calls  for  twenty-one  millions, 
219  ;  reports  success  of  sixteen  mil 
lions  loan,  personal  influence  with 
Parish,  Girard,  and  Astor,  221  ;  re 
view  of  his  administration  of  the 
finances,  policy  vindicated,  222.  Rev 
enue.  Connection  with  the  reve 
nue,  226  ;  estimates  of  revenue  and 
division  into  permanent  and  tem 
porary,  227,  228 ;  proposes  addi 
tional  impost  to  meet  expenses  of 
war  with  Tripoli,  229 ;  raises  per 
manent  revenue,  231 ;  recommends 
that  duties  be  doubled  in  case  of 
war,  233  ;  reports  undiminished  re 
sources.  235  ;  plainly  sets  forth  sit 
uation  to  Congress,  237  ;  announces 
probaJble  deficiency,  disappointed 
by  refusal  of  Congress  to  renew 
charter  of  United  States  Bank,  ten 
ders  resignation  to  Madison,  239 ; 
gives  estimate  of  probable  receipts 
from  duties,  recommends  that  they 
be  doubled,  240 ;  throws  responsi 
bility  of  internal  taxation  upon 
Congress,  241 ;  his  final  report,  1812, 
243  ;  close  of  connection  with  cus 
toms  system,  243;  connection  with 
internal  taxes,  243,  244  ;  his  connec 
tion  with  the  sales  of  public  lands, 
brings  subject  before  Congress  iu 


INDEX. 


411 


1796,  opinion  of  their  value  as  a  na 
tional  resource  and  fund  for  pay 
ment  of  the  debt,  his  treatise  on  the 
subject,  245-247  ;  belief  in  principles 
of  Republican  party,  248:  earliest 
advocate  of  free  trade,  his  position 
on  this  subject  in  the  election  of 
1832,  leader  of  the  cause,  248,  249 ; 
soul  of  free  trade  convention,  drafts 
memorial,  proclaims  the  genuine 
American  system,  violently  attacked 
by  Clay,  views  prevail  in  tariff  of 
1846,  248-251.  Administration.  Ad 
ministration  of  Treasury  reviewed, 
251-255 ;  his  economy,  struggles 
with  War  and  Navy  departments, 
253,  254  ;  arranges  with  Nicholson 
for  specific  appropriations  to  be 
ordered  by  Congress,  254 ;  care 
ful  administration  of  his  household 
finances,  259.  Banking.  Review  of 
operation  of  Bank  of  U  S.,  2G1 ;  sug 
gestions  as  to  renewal  of  charter, 
202 ;  opinion  of  the  bank  in  1830, 
and  in  1841,  204,  265;  estimate  of 
the  banking  facilities  of  the  U.  S.  in 
1811,  267  ;  negotiations  with  Parish, 
Girard,  and  Astor,  269  ;  estimate 
of  proceeds  of  loans  from  different 
sections  of  U.  S.,  270;  opinion  that 
continuance  of  the  bank  would  have 
averted  suspension  in  1815,  271  ; 
opinion  of  service  rendered  by  sec 
ond  bank  of  the  U.  S.,  275  ;  declines 
Treasury  Department  in  1810,  270  ; 
impresses  on  Madison  necessity  of 
return  to  specie  payment,  276 ;  de 
clines  presidency  of  Bank  of  U.  S., 
277 ;  prepares  a  statement  of  rela 
tive  value  of  gold  and  silver,  277  ; 
writes  for  ' '  American  Quarterly  Re 
view"  an  essay  on  currency  and 
banking  system  of  the  U.  S.,  277  ; 
accepts  the  presidency  of  National 
Bank  of  New  York,  278 ,  his  bank 
suspends  with  all  others  in  1837, 
conducts  resumption,  283-285 ;  de 
clines  presidency  of  Bank  of  Com 
merce  in  New  York,  280 ;  resigns 
presidency  of  National  Bank,  280; 
publishes  essay  on  banks  and  cur 
rency  of  U.  S.,  280;  declines  the 
Treasury  Department,  287,  288. 

In  the  Cabinet.  In  accord  with 
Republican  leaders  except  on  the 
bank  question,  290 ;  belief  in  civil 
service  independent  of  politics,  cir 
cular  disavowed  by  Jefferson,  291, 
292  ;  proposes  division  of  states  into 
election  districts,  293  ;  his  account 
of  Jefferson's  cabinet,  294  ;  opinions 
deferred  to  on  constitutional  ques 


tions,  295 ;  advice  to  Jefferson  as  to 
Louisiana  treaty,  290  ;  arranges  for 
occupation  of  New  Orleans,  296; 
cannot  be  accused  of  favoritism, 
declines  to  remove  officials,  obtains 
places  for  but  two  friends,  297  ;  con 
tracts  friendship  with  Chouteau  of 
St.  Louis,  interested  in  the  Indian 
territory,  297  ;  drafts  letter  of  pro 
tection  to  Astor's  schemes  in  north-  ( 
^west,  298  ;  opposes  Jefferson's  plan 
'  of  gun-boats,  299  ;  deprecates  harsh 
terms  in  presidential  message,  301  ; 
devises  plan  of  internal  improve 
ments,  300  ;  advocates  coast  survey, 
and  recommends  Hassler  to  Jeffer 
son,  300 ;  doubts  popularity  of  a 
National  University,  301 ;  opposes 
permanent  embargo,  302  ;  prepares 
Campbell's  report  ou  injuries  done 
to  U.  S.  by  Great  Britain,  recom 
mends  national  defence,  303 ;  ap 
plies  enforcement  act  with  vigor, 
303 ;  submits  notes  to  Jefferson  on 
political  situation,  304  ;  opposes  the 
ordering  out  of  the  naval  force,  304  ; 
suggests  letters  of  marque,  305; 
financial  policy  opposed  by  Repub 
lican  faction  in  Senate,  300  ;  tenders 
resignation  to  Madison,  307  ;  assailed 
in  "  Aurora  "  by  Duane,  308  ;  ablest 
man  in  the  administration  after 
Madison,  in  Jefferson's  opinion,  308 ; 
requests  leave  of  absence  and  ap 
pointment  on  mission  to  Russia,  311 ; 
lasting  reverence  for  Jefferson,  com- 
tinued  friendship  for  Madison,  310, 
311. 

In  Diplomacy  ->—  Treaty  of  Ghent. 
Sails  for  Europe  with  Bayard,  312 ; 
arrives  at  Gotha,  visits  Gottenburg, 
arrives  at  Copenhagen,  memoranda 
of  voyage,  312  ;  reaches  St.  Peters 
burg,  meets  Adams,  313  ;  compared 
with  Adams,  313 ;  character  and 
purposes,  314 ;  opinion  of  English 
and  French  diplomacy,  315  ;  writes 
to  Barings,  317  ;  receives 
from  Alexander  Baring,  317,  3l 
communicates  with  Romanzoff,  ad 
dresses  an  official  note  to  Emperor 
Alexander,  319  ;  asks  intervention  of 
Moreau,  319  ;  asks  instructions  from 
Monroe,  320 ;  replies  to  Baring,  320 ; 
learns  that  his  confirmation  has  been 
refused  by  Senate,  320;  contem 
plates  visit  to  London,  322;  hears 
that  British  government  propose  to 
treat  directly  with  America,  323; 
leaves  St.  Petersburg,  arrives  at  Am 
sterdam,  324  ;  hears  of  new  commis 
sion  in  which  he  is  not  included,  324 ; 


412 


INDEX. 


arrives  at  London,  324 ;  urges  Lafay 
ette's  intervention,  325 ;  proposes 
change  of  place  of  negotiation,  asks 
authority  of  Monroe  for  change,  325, 
326  ;  urges  Crawford  to  secure  inter 
position  of  Emperor  Alexander,  326  ; 
receives  letter  from  Lafayette  prom 
ising  aid,  327  ;  visited  by  Baron  von 
Humboldt,  327  ;  warns  Monroe  of 
war  preparations  in  England,  327 ; 
leaves  London  for  Ghent,  328 ;  de 
tects  purposes  of  English  cabinet, 
advises  Monroe,  329,  330;  consid 
ers  negotiations  at  an  end,  330 ; 
draws  reply  of  American  commis 
sioners  to  propositions  of  British 
commissioners,  331 ;  opinion  of 
burning  of  Washington  expressed  to 
Madame  de  Stael,  331 ;  confidence 
in  American  securities,  332 ;  over 
match  for  Lord  Bathurst,  333  ;  diffi 
culty  in  maintaining  harmony  be 
tween  Adams  and  Clay,  334  ;  treaty 
of  Ghent  his  special  work,  335 ;  his 
diplomatic  skill,  336;  his  reputa 
tion  in  Europe,  337 ;  visits  Geneva 
and  receives  honors,  338 ;  returns 
by  way  of  Paris,  338 ;  hears  of  his 
appointment  as  minister  to  France, 
338;  with  Clay  opens  negotiations  at 
London  with  Castlereagh,  arranges 
commercial  treaty,  338  ;  leaves  Lon 
don,  arrives  at  New  York,  339; 
letter  to  Jefferson  on  condition 
of  France,  339;  declines  nomina 
tion  to  Congress,  French  mission, 
and  Treasury  Department,  accepts 
French  mission,  340-342.  Minister 
to  France.  Arrives  at  Paris,  inter 
view  with  Richelieu,  343 ;  audience 
by  the  King,  familiarly  received  at 
court,  344 ;  negotiates  for  indem 
nity,  345;  at  London,  advises 
Adams  as  to  commercial  treaty 
with  Great  Britain,  at  the  Hague 
with  Eustis  negotiates  treaty  with 
Holland,  345,  346 ;  returns  to  Paris, 
346;  with  Rush  conducts  negoti 
ations  with  Great  Britain,  346, 
347 ;  declines  taking  part  with 
France  in  mediation  between  Spain 
and  her  colonies,  348 ;  informs 
Adams  of  state  of  European  opin 
ion,  348;  points  out  disadvantage 
of  war  with  Spain,  349  :  disturbed 
by  seizure  on  St.  Mary's  river  of 
a  French  vessel,  difference  with 
Adams  as  to  doctrine  assumed  by 
U.  S.,  350;  described  in  Adams's 
diary,  351  ;  his  opinion  of  Adams, 
351 ;  renews  negotiations  with 
French  ministry,  349-352 ;  proposes 


return  to  America,  352;  continues 
negotiations,  353 ;  receives  leave  of 
absence,  353  ;  sails  from  Havre,  ar 
rives  at  .  New  York,  353  ;  visits 
Washington,  settles  at  Friendship 
Hill,  urged  to  return  to  Paris,  de 
clines,  354 ;  declines  to  represent 
U.  S.  at  Congress  of  American  Re 
publics  at  Panama,  354.  Minister 
to  England.  Appointed  envoy  ex 
traordinary  to  England,  appointed 
minister  with  power,  355;  disap 
pointed  in  instructions,  355  ;  sails 
from  New  York,  reaches  London, 
356 ;  dislike  of  French  and  English 
diplomacy,  357 ;  negotiates  with 
Canning,  358;  words  quoted  by 
Chateaubriand,  358 ;  warned  by 
Adams  of  disposition  of  Great  Brit 
ain,  359  ;  concludes  negotiations 
with  Lord  Goderich,  360  ;  returns 
to  United  States,  congratulated  by 
Adams,  360  ;  courtesies  extended  to 
him  at  London,  361  ;  prepares  argu 
ment  to  be  laid  before  King  of 
Netherlands  on  boundary,  362  ;  pub 
lishes  statement  of  facts,  362; 
visited  by  Lord  Ashburton,  363 ; 
compared  with  Lord  Ashburton, 
363  ;  publishes  pamphlet  on  Oregon 
question,  363  ;  presides  at  meeting 
of  protest  against  annexation  of 
Texas,  364 ;  condemns  war  with 
Mexico,  publishes  pamphlets  con 
cerning  it,  364 ;  disbelieves  in  mani 
fest  destiny,  condemns  idea  of  sin 
gle  rule  over  American  continent, 
365 ;  dies  at  threshold  of  golden  age, 
367. 

Candidate  for  the  Vice-Presidency. 
Opinion  of  Republican  contempo 
raries,  368,  369;  prefers  Crawford 
for  president,  370  ;  nominated  for 
vice-president  in  Republican  cau 
cus,  371 ;  accepts  nomination,  371 ; 
withdraws  from  ticket,  371  ;  con 
siders  Republican  party  "defunct," 
372  ;  opinion  of  the  presidency,  373  ; 
visits  Washington,  notices  changes, 
373. 

Society,  Literature,  Science. 
Land  speculations  unprofitable,  374 ; 
forms  plan  of  Swiss  colonization, 
374 ;  pecuniary  losses,  375 ;  locates 
land  in  Ohio,  375;  value  of  his  es 
tate,  375 ;  early  embarrassment  in 
society,  376  ;  house  in  Washington 
burned  by  the  British,  377 ;  house 
at  Friendship  Hill  described,  377,- 
entertains  Lafayette  at  Friendship 
Hill,  377;  passes  winter  at  New 
Geneva,  378 ;  settles  in  New  York, 


INDEX. 


413 


878 ;  devotes  himself  to  science,  379 ; 
presides  over  National  Bank,  379 ; 
«hosen  member  of  "the  Club"  379- 
381  ;  described  by  Washington  Ir 
ving,  381 ;  attempts  to  establish  Na 
tional  University  in  New  York, 
president  of  the  first  council^  reasons 
for  withdrawal,  381-383  ;  interest  in 
French  politics,  384  :  con.-ratulated 
by  Lafayette  on  marriaga  of  his 
daughter,  u85;  interested  in  Polish 
emigrants,  chairman  of  Polish  com 
mittee,  385,  380 ;  interest  in  In 
dian  languages  and  customs,  387  ; 
communicates  to  Von  Humboldt  a 
synopsis  of  Indian  tribes,  388 ;  ob 
tains  vocabularies  of  southern  Indi 
ans,  urges  War  Department  to  cir 
culate  these  through  its  posts,  388 ; 
example  of  letters  addressed  to  indi 
viduals,  388,  389  ;  original  synopsis 
published,  390  ;  result  of  his  inves 
tigations,  391 ;  advice  asked  as  to 
employment  of  Smithsonian  trust, 
391 ;  and  as  to  its  publications,  39'2  ; 
founds  American  Ethnological  Soci 
ety,  392,  393;  its  publications  and 
his  contributions  to  them,  393 ; 
gathers  information  as  to  produc 
tion  of  gold  in  U.  S.  for  Von  Hum 
boldt,  394  ;  opinion  of  his  own  pow 
ers,  his  reasons  for  his  success,  his 
minute  labor,  395 ;  favors  attempt 
to  establish  literary  periodical  in 
New  York,  396 ;  chosen  president  of 
N.  Y.  Historical  Society,  396 ;  in 
augural  address,  396 ;  the  "  Anti 
quary  "  his  favorite  novel,  396  ;  his 
opinion  of  Washington,  is  eulogized 
by  J.  Q.  Adams,  398 ;  their  political 
careers  contrasted,  399;  personal 
appearance  and  portraits,  398,  399  ; 
death  of  his  friends,  of  his  wife, 
399;  removed  to  Astoria,  400 ;  death 
and  funeral,  401 ;  eulogized  by  Lu 
ther  Bradish,  401 ;  acknowledges 
his  indebtedness  to  Bentham,  402 ; 
his  head  pronounced  capital  by 
Spurzheim,  402;  praised  by  Du- 
mont,  402 ;  his  moral  excellence,  a 
citizen  of  the  world,  403. 

Gallatin,  Abraham,  grandfather  of  Al 
bert,  in  trade,  2  ;  lives  at  Pregny, 
7;  dies,  58. 

Gallatin,  Albert,  Mrs.,  presides  at  the 
drawing  room,  377. 

Gallatin,  Frances,  married  to  Byam 
Kerby  Stevens,  384. 

Gallatin,  James,  secretary  to  mission, 
312. 

Gallatin,  Jean,  father  of  Albert^  in 
trade,  dies,  2. 


Gallatin,  P.  M.,  guardian  of  Albert, 
11 ;  reproaches  him  for  his  depart 
ure,  11  ;  obtains  letters  for  him  to 
distinguished  Americans,  11. 

Gallatin,  Sophie  Albertine  Rollaz,  wife 
c.f  Jean  and  mother  of  Albert  Gal 
latin,  her  death,  2. 

Gallatiu,  Madame,  Vaudenet,  wife  of 
Abraham  and  mother  of  Albert,  5 ; 
friend  of  Voltaire  and  of  L  vndgrave 
of  Hesse-Cassel,  5  ;  controlling  spirit 
of  the  family,  8  ;  quarrels  with  Al 
bert,  9. 

Gallatin  family,  influence  in  Swiss  Re 
public,  2 ;  in  military  service,  8  ; 
claim  Roman  descent,  399. 

Gambier,  Lord,  British  commissioner 
to  Ghent,  328. 

Genet,  French  minister,  intemperance 
of,  59 ;  marries  daughter  of  George 
Clinton,  105  ;  aids  democratic  socie 
ties,  105 ;  held  up  to  condemnation, 
138. 

Gsneva,  resort  of  foreigners,  4  ;  so 
ciety  in,  4 ;  Kinloch,  Smith,  Lau- 
rens,  Penns,  Bache,  Johannot  are 
educated  at,  4 ;  political  state  of, 
10  ;  form  of  government,  34. 

Geneva  Academy,  Gallatin  attends,  2  ; 
course  of  study  at,  3 ;  influence  on 
society,  4  ;  Serre,  Badollet,  Dumont, 
De  Lolme,  Pictet  educated  at,  5. 

Geneva,  New,  Gallatin's  log  hut  the 
beginning  of,  78. 

Gerry,  Elbridge,  envoy  to  France, 
144. 

Ghent,  treaty  of,  312;  signed,  335; 
the  triumph  of  Gallatin,  335. 

Giles,  William  B.,  M.  C.,  Virginia, 
leads  Republican  debate,  103 ;  op 
poses  address  to  Washington,  132, 
133 ;  leads  opposition  in  fifth  Con 
gress,  137  ;  jealousy  of  Gallatin,  145. 

Girard,  Stephen,  221. 

Gold,  effect  of  discovery  in  California. 
366. 

Goodrich,  Chauncy,  M.  C.,  Connecti 
cut,  Federalist,  102  ;  on  diplomatic 
intercourse,  148. 

Goulburn,  Henry,  British  commis 
sioner  to  Ghent,  328  ;  protests 
against  concessions  to  U.  S. ,  332. 

Great  Britain,  Jay's  treaty  with,  106  ; 
debate  upon,  113  ;  appropriations  for, 
125 ;  declared  objectionable,  125. 

Greensburg,  on  the  Monongahela,  28. 

Grenville,  Lord,  duped  by  Jay,  121  ; 
his  proposition  to  Pinckney,  138; 
spirit  of  his  negotiations  with  Jay, 
362. 

Griswold,  Roger,  of  Connecticut,  Fed 
eral  .leader,  102 ;  argument  on 


414 


INDEX. 


treaty-making  power,  116  ;  retains 
influence  in  fifth  Congress,  137 ; 
collision  with  Lyon,  145  ;  speech  on 
constitutional  checks,  148 ;  defends 
Senate  bill  on  Treasury  reports, 
166. 

Gun-boats,  Jefferson's  scheme  of.  299 ; 
in  Lafayette's  expedition,  299. 

HAMILTON,  ALEXANDER,  secretary  of 
treasury,  compared  with  Gallatin, 
29 ;  his  early  maturity,  33  ;  excise 


Historical  Society,  New  York,  Galla 
tin  president  of,  396 ;  his  inaugural 
address,  397  ;  commemoration  meet 
ing,  398 ;  proceedings  on  Gallatin's 
death,  401 . 

Humboldt,  Baron  von,  study  of  pro 
duction  in  precious  metals,  287  ; 
Prussian  minister  at  Paris,  327  ;  vis 
its  Gallatin  in  London,  327  ;  compli 
ments  Gallatin,  337. 

Husbands,  Herman,  83. 

Huskisson,  British  minister,  on  im 
pressment,  360. 


bill,   50  ;  indignation  at  opposition, 

55  ;   appeal  to  the  people,  "  Tully," 

89  ;  changed  with  attempt  to  indict  |  IMPRESSMENT  of    seamen,   ignored    in 

Gallatin,   92  ;    accompanies  troops,  Jay  treaty,   100 ;  power  concerning 

93  ;  resigns  Treasury,   100  ;  advises  to  be  lodged  in  the  Executive,  126  ; 

the   Federalists,  102  ;  rupture  with  cause  of  war,  316 ;  question  at  Ghent, 

Jefferson,  103 ;   stoned  in  New  York  316,  334  ;  in  1818,  346  ;   Huskisson's 

for    supporting    Jay    treaty,    106 ;  condemnation  of,  360. 

general,    160  ;    formulates    central  I  Indians,  trading  houses,  appropriation 


power,  174;  appointed  to  Treasury, 
180 ;  report  on  public  credit,  180  ; 
funding  bill,  180 ;  excise  law,  181  ; 
resignation,  183  ;  breach  with 
Adams,  183 ;  policy  questioned,  185  ; 
Gallatin  oiiends,  185  ;  his  funding 
method  criticised,  191 ;  Ids  revenue 
systems,  226,  243 ;  report  on  sale  of 
public  lands,  246 ;  his  establish 
ments  organic,  289. 

Hamilton,  John  C.,  accusation  of  Gal 
latin,  86. 

Harper,  Robert  Goodloe,  of  South  Car 
olina,  Federal  leader,  101  ;  argu 
ment  on  treaty-making  power,  118  ; 
leads  Federalists  in  fifth  Congress, 
137  ;  debate  on  the  address,  138 ; 
opposes  Kittera's  amendment, 
139;  votes  with  Republicans,  139; 
chairman  of  Ways  and  Means,  144  ; 
Gallatin's  opinion  of,  144  ;  leads  busi 
ness  of  the  House,  146 ;  debate  on 
foreign  ministers,  151 ;  introduces 
bill  to  suspend  relations  with  France, 
156 ;  hot  words  with  Gallatin  over 
Alien  Bill,  157  ;  defends  Senate  biU 
on  Treasury  reports,  166. 

Harrisburg,  conference  of  Anti-Feder 
alists,  38,  39;  Gallatin  represents 
Fayette  County  in,  39  ;  draws  reso 
lutions  for,  39,  40  ;  report  of,  pub 
lished,  41. 

Henry,  Patrick,  governor,  commis 
sions  Gallatin  to  locate  lands,  25; 
predicts  his  future,  30. 

Hesse-Cassel,  Frederick,  Landgrave 
of,  sends  his  portrait  to  Mme.  Gal 
latin  Vaudenet,  7. 

Hillhouse,  M.  C.,  Connecticut,  Fed 
eralist,  102 ;  on  Ways  and  Means 
Committee,  108. 


for,     oppi 
Wayne's  1 


wsed  by  Gallatin,  111  ; 
ayne's" treaty  with,  121  :  in  Maine 
and  on  the  Ohio,  386 ;  tribes  classi 
fied  by  Jeflerson,  387  ;  synopsis  of 
tribes  prepared  by  Gallatin,  388; 
gathering  at  Washington,  388;  vo 
cabularies  collected  by  Smithsonian, 
389  ;  Du  Ponceau's  Grammar  of  Lan- 

f  cages,  390  ;  publication  of  Gallatin's 
ynopsis,  391  ;  his  introduction  to 
Hale's  work  on,  394. 

Indian  question  at  Ghent,  331,  332. 

Internal  improvements,  Jefferson's 
policy  on,  290  ;  Gallatin's  plan,  300. 

Invisibles,  the,  304. 

Irving,  Washington,  describes  Mrs. 
Gallatin,  377  ;  on  Gallatin's  conver 
sation,  381. 

JACKSON,  ANDREW,  M.  C.,  Tennessee, 
Republican,  takes  his  seat,  133; 
votes  against  address  to  Washing 
ton,  133  ;  described  by  Gallatin,  133  ; 
appoints  Taney  to  supreme  court, 
279  ;  Gallatin's  opinion  of,  368 ;  his 
idea  of  party,  372  ;  a  pugnacious  an 
imal,  373  ;  in  the  White  House,  373. 

Jay,  John,  hung  in  effigy,  10G  ;  his  ad 
vice  to  Randolph,  120,  121 ;  opinion 
of,  in  p:ngland,  121  ;  spirit  of  his 
negotiations  with  Grenville,  362. 

Jay  treaty  made  public  by  Senator 
Mason,  106  ;  popular  dissatisfaction 
with,  106;  debate  upon,  113;  ap 
propriations  for,  125 ;  declared  ob 
jectionable  by  the  House,  125  ;  how 
considered  in  England,  121 ;  conse 
quences  of  its  incompleteness,  316. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  first  hears  of  Gal 
latin,  22  ;  awaits  disruption  of  Fed 
eral  party,  102  ;  rupture  with  Ham- 


INDEX. 


415 


ilton,  103  ;  imbued  with  principles 
of  Freuch  revolution,  105  ,  ridiculed 
as  a  sans-culotte,  107  ;  Wolcott 
complains  of  his  influence,  131  ;  ad 
vises  Republicans  to  moderate  their 
bitterness  against  Washington,  132  ; 
waning  spirit  of  Republican  oppo 
sition,  13!  ;  complains  of  wavering 
of  Congress,  142  ;  powerless  in  the 
Senate  as  vice-president,  143  ;  loses 
taste  for  a  French  alliance,  144  ;  a 
French  missionary,  151  ;  in  the  tri 
umvirate,  174  ;  represents  spirit  of 
liberty,  174  ;  mission  of  his  adminis 
tration,  194  ;  not  a  practical  states 
man,  195  ;  his  cabinet,  195;  opposed 
bank  of  U.  S.,  259  ;  plans  of  paper 
money,  373  ;  his  principles  of  ad 
ministration,  289  ;  policy  restric 
tive,  289  ;  at  issue  with  Gallatin  on 
bank  question,  289  ;  opposes  Galla- 
tin's  civil  service  circular,  292 ; 
want  of  system  in  cabinet,  294 ; 
alienates  Burr,  294  ;  views  as  to  ac 
quisition  of  territory,  295  ;  intimacy 
with  Duane,  296;  correspondence 
with  Astor  as  to  fur  company,  298  ; 
gun-boat  scheme.  299 :  constitu 
tional  scruples,  301 ;  indecision  as 
to  measures,  3U2  ;  withdraws  from 
the  triumvirate,  302  ;  opinion  of  and 
attachment  to  Gallatin,  308  ;  affec 
tion  for  him,  311 ;  rejoices  on  Galla 
tin 's  appointment  to  Paris,  342  ;  his 
opinion  of  Louis  XV11L,  343  ;  trans- 
lates  Tracy's  Political  Economy, 
343. 

Johannot,  grandson  of  Dr.  Cooper, 
educated  at  Geneva,  4. 

Jones,  William,  secretary  of  navy, 
acting  secretary  of  treasury,  324. 

KEMP,  VAN  DER,  commissioner  for  the 
Netherlands,  346. 

King,  Rufus,  minister  to  England, 
355  ;  resigns,  355  ;  tone  of  his  diplo 
matic  correspondence,  357. 

Kinloch,  Francis,  M.  C.,  South  Caro 
lina,  educated  at  Geneva,  4  ;  Gal 
latin  receives  a  letter  of  introduc 
tion  for,  11. 

Kramer  brothers,  glass-works  at  New 
Geneva,  62. 

LAFAYETTE,  represents  true  republican 
spirit,  105 ;  prisoner  in  Austria, 
105  ;  expedition  against  Arnold, 
299  :  has  interview  with  Alexander, 
326;  welcomed  by  Gallatin,  378; 
congratulations  to,  on  marriage  of 
his  daughter,  384  ;  describes  the  rev 
olution  of  1830,  384. 


Lands,  public,  offices  for  sale  of,  126  ; 
value  in  1792,  126  ;  Hamilton's  re 
port,  245  ;  sales  under  Adams,  246; 
Jefferson,  247  ;  Gallatin's  adminis 
tration  of,  247  ;  his  treatise  on,  248. 

Laurens,  Colonel,  educated  at  Gen 
eva,  4. 

Lawrence,  William  Beach,  anecdote 
of  Washington  and  Gallatin,  23 ; 
Secretary  to  Gallatin,  356.  charge" 
d'affaires,  357  ;  presides  at  dinner 
of  New  York  Historical  Society, 
398. 

Leopard,  man-of-war,  captures  the 
Chesapeake,  232. 

Lesdernier,  a  Genevan,  resident  of 
Machias,  14  ;  his  log  cabin  the  home 
of  Gallatin,  15. 

Lieven,  Count,  Russian  minister  at 
London,  320. 

Lieven,  Countess  of,  autocrat  of  Lon 
don  foreign  society,  361. 

Lincoln,  Levi,  attorney-general,  opin 
ion  on  acquisition  of  territory,  295> 

Literary  periodical,  New  York,  pro 
posed  by  Gallatin,  396. 

Liverpool,  Lord,  accepts  settlement  of 
Indian  question,  332  ;  acknowledges 
hi*  defeat,  334. 

Livingston,  Edward,  M.  C.,  New  York, 
Republican  leader,  103;  calls  for 
instructions  to  Jay,  113  ;  appointed 
to  wait  on  President  with  call  for 
papers,  118  ;  votes  against  address 
to  Washington,  133;  denounces 
course  of  the  administration,  140  ; 
votes  against  the  answer  to  ad 
dress,  141. 

Louis  XVIII.,  Jefferson's  opinion  of, 

343  ;   gives  audience    to   Gallatin, 

344  ;  his  courteous  malice,  344. 

Louisiana  purchase,  199,  201,  203. 

Louisiana,  East,  acquisition  of,  295. 

Lyon,  Matthew,  M.  C.,  Vermont,   col 
lision  with  Griswold,  145. 

MACHIAS,  trade  of,  15  ;  life  at,  in  1780, 
16. 

Macon,  Nathaniel,  M  C.,  Georgia,  Re 
publican,  votes  against  approbation 
of  Washington,  133 :  against  sus 
pending  intercourse  with  France, 
165  ;  declines  to  enter  caucus,  369  ; 
his  uncompromising  spirit,  369. 

Madison,  James,  leads  Republican  op 
position,  103 ;  mildness  in  third 
Congress,  105  ;  drafts  and  amends 
address  to  President,  108,  109  ;  sup 
ports  bill  for  establishing  trading 
houses  with  Indians.  Ill ;  on  treaty 
making  power,  114,  117  ;  leads  do- 
bate  on  right  of  the  House  to  call 


416 


INDEX. 


for  papers,  119  ;  Wolcott  complains 
of  his  influence,  131 ;  the  finest  rea 
soning  power  in  Congress,  132 ;  in 
the  triumvirate,  174  ;  his  financial 
ignorance,  185  ;  in  accord  with  Gal- 
latin  on  strict  appropriations,  251; 
vetoes  bill  for  U.  S.  Bank,  274  ;  op 
poses  Gallatiu's  civil  service  circu 
lar,  292 ;  refuses  aid  to  Astoria  es 
tablishment,  298  ;  his  weakness, 
305  ;  inexcusable  course  to  Gallatin, 
307  ;  compelled  by  Gallatin  to  a 
choice  between  himself  and  Smith, 
307 ;  his  administration  humbled, 
329;  offers  Treasury  to  Gallatin, 
341. 

Manifest  destiny,  365. 

Marque,  letters  of,  305. 

Marshall,  James,  leader  in  Whiskey  In 
surrection,  51  ;  represents  Washing 
ton  County  in  Pennsylvania  Legisla 
ture,  54 ;  draws  remonstrance  to 
Congress,  54;  attends  meeting  of 
Washington  malcontents,  71 ;  urges 
violence,  72  ;  countermands  rendez 
vous,  72  ;  delegate  to  Parkinson's 
Ferry  convention,  81 ;  withdraws 
violent  resolution,  82. 

Marshall,  John,  offers  place  in  his  law 
office  to  Gallatin,  29 ;  envoy  to 
France,  144;  M.  C.  from  Virginia, 
163  ;  announces  death  of  Washing 
ton  to  the  House,  164. 

McClanachan,  Blair,  chairman  of 
Pennsylvania  ratification  conven 
tion,  39;  violent  words  at  Presi 
dent's  table,  143. 

McKean,  Thomas,  Chief  Justice  of 
Pennsylvania,  suggests  sending  com 
missioners  to  rioters,  79. 

McLane,  Louis,  secretary  of  treasury, 
reports  virtual  extinguishment  of 
U.  S.  debt,  278. 

Mediterranean  Fund,  230,  238. 

Mexico,  war  with,  condemned  by  Gal 
latin,  364  ;  peace  with,  advocated 
by,  364  ;  signed,  365. 

Mifflin,  Thomas,  governor,  79,  90,  91. 

Milton,  Blue  Hills  of,  visited  by  Galla 
tin,  13. 

Mississippi,  navigation  question,  334, 
335,  347. 

Monroe,  James,  minister  to  France, 
presents  American  flag  to  French 
convention,  136 ;  appointed  secre 
tary  of  state,  308;  mstructions  to 
envoys,  316  ;  president  of  the  U.  S., 
346. 

Montgomery,  John,  of  Maryland,  mar 
ries  Maria  Nicholson,  62. 

Jlontmorency,  Vicomte  de,  minister 
of  foreign  affairs,  352. 


Moreau,  General,  offers  assistance  t« 
envoys,  319  ;  his  death,  321,  322. 

Morris,  Gouverneur,  33,  178. 

Morris,  Robert,  U.  S.  senator  for 
Pennsylvania,  63;  the  financier  of 
the  Revolution,  177;  called  to  the 
Treasury,  177;  administration  of, 
178  ;  retirement  of,  179. 

Muliiciiberg,  Frederick  A.,  speaker  of 
the  Hout;e,  101. 

Miiigo  Creek  Meeting  House,  anti-ex- 
cLe  meeting  at,  71. 

Murray,  William  Vans,  M.  C.,  Mary 
land,  Federalist.  102  ;  on  the  Jay 
treaty,  114. 

NATIONAL  BANK  of  New  York  organ 
ized,  278  ;  Gallatin  president  of, 
278  ;  suspends,  282  ;  Gallatin  resigns, 
286. 

Navy,  opposed  by  Gallatin  as  needless, 
127-129;  prejudicial  to  committee, 
134. 

Neuville,  Hyde  de,  minister  to  U.  S., 
346,  354. 

Netherlands,  King  of,  arbiter  on  the 
northeastern  boundary,  362  ;  treaty 
with,  345. 

New  Orleans,  battle  of,  337. 

New  York,  life  at,  in  1782,  19. 

Nicholson,  Hannah,  makes  excursion 
with  Gallatin,  61 ;  family,  61  ;  mar 
ried  to  Gallatin,  61. 

Nicholson,  James,  commodore,  fam 
ily  of,  61 ;  Republican  leader  in  New 
York,  61 ;  entertains  Gallatin,  62. 

Nicholson,  James  Witter,  associated 
with  Gallatin  in  western  company, 
62  ;  removes  to  Fayette,  62  ;  glass 
works  of,  at  New  Geneva,  62. 

Nicholas,  John,  M.  C.,  from  Virginia, 
Republican  leader,  103,  140  ;  votes 
against  Kittera's  amendment,  140; 
speech  on  the  power  of  the  Execu 
tive,  146  ;  would  decline  diplomatic 
relations,  147  ;  declares  Republican 
purposes,  149  ;  Gallatin 's  lieuten 
ant,  164  ;  votes  against  suspending 
intercourse  with  France,  165  ;  op 
poses  Senate  bill  on  Treasury  re 
ports,  106. 

Non-importation  act  of  1774,  a  failure, 
303  ;  enforced  by  Gallatin,  303. 

OHIO  COMPANY,  account  of  association, 
21. 

Orders  in  Council,  208,  233. 

Oregon  Territory,  joint  occupancy 
agreement,  renewed,  359. 

Otis,  Harrison  Gray,  M.  C.,  Massachu 
setts,  Federalist,  137 ;  denounces 
Livingston's  speech,  140. 


INDEX. 


417 


PANAMA  CONGRESS  of  American  Repub 
lics,  Gallatin  declines  mission  to, 
354. 

Parish,  David,  221. 

Parker,  Josiah,  M.  C.,  Virginia,  resolu 
tion  of,  161 ;  on  French  intercourse, 
166. 

Parkinson's  Ferry,  militia  ordered  to 
rendezvous  at,  72  ;  convention  as 
sembles  at,  80 ;  meeting  at,  described 
by  Breckenridge,  82 ;  proceedings 
at,  82,  91. 

Pasquier,  French  minister,  350. 

Pendleton  Society,  Virginia,  secession 
resolutions  of,  120. 

Penn,  Lady  Juliana,  gives  letter  of  in 
troduction  to  John  Penn  in  favor  of 
young  Gallatin,  11. 

Penns,  proprietors  of  Pennsylvania, 
educated  at  Geneva,  4. 

Pennsylvania  society  compared  with 
that  of  New  York,  49. 

Pennsylvania  state  constitutional  con 
vention  of  1789,  42,  43  ;  opposes  call, 
42;  represents  Fayette  County  in, 
42  ;  memoranda  of  service  in,  43  ; 
account  of,  44. 

Pennsylvania  Assembly,  Gallatin  rep 
resents  Fayette  in,  45,  46 ;  account 
of  service  in,  46  ;  draws  resolution 
for  abolition  of  slavery,  48 ;  opposes 
Excise  Bill  in,  50  ;  proposes  county 
taxation  and  school  system,  57. 

Pensacola  occupied  by  Jackson,  348. 

Perouse,  La,  the  navigator,  visits  Ma- 
chias,  17. 

Perry,  Gallatin  settles  Frost's  meadow 
in,  15. 

Philadelphia,  seat  of  government 
moved  to,  48 ;  state  of  society  in 
1790,  49. 

Pickering,  Timothy,  secretary  of  war, 
100. 

Pictet,  Mademoiselle,  relative  of  Gal 
latin,  2 ;  takes  charge  of  Albert,  2  ; 
her  nephew  taught  by  him,  5  ;  Al 
bert's  attachment  for,  9 ;  her  grief 
at  his  departure,  11 ;  sends  him  let 
ters  of  introduction,  11  ;  sends  him 
funds,  18 ;  his  only  link  with  his 
family,  20 ;  reproaches  him  for  in 
dolence,  45. 

Pictet,  the  naturalist,  educated  at 
Geneva,  5. 

Pinckney,  Charles  C.,  minister  to 
France,  136,  144. 

Pittsburgh  in  1790,  51  ;  anti-excise 
meeting  at,  52 ;  alarm  at,  72. 

Polish  committee  in  aid  of  emigrants, 
386. 

Porcupine,  Peter.  See  William  Cob- 
bett. 

27 


Pregny,  on  lake  of  Geneva,  residence 

of  Gallatin's  grandparents,  7. 

RANDOLPH,  EDMUND,  secretary  of  state, 
79,  100,  107. 

Randolph,  John,  M.  C.,  Virginia,  163  ; 
Republican,  votes  against  suspend 
ing  intercourse  with  France,  165 ; 
opposes  medal  to  Truxton,  165; 
report  on  revenue,  228  ;  complains 
of  want  of  system  in  Jefferson's 
cabinet,  294  ;  Gallatin's  opinion  of, 
368. 

Red  Stone  Old  Fort.     See  Brownsville. 

Report  of  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means,  Pennsylvania  Legislature, 
drawn  by  Gallatin,  47. 

Report  on  Finances,  Gallatin's,  for 
Ways  and  Means  Committee  of  Penn 
sylvania  Legislature,  189 ;  to  Con 
gress,  1801,  198,  226;  1805,  204; 

1807,  206;     1808,   208;    1809,   211; 
1811,  212. 

Republican  party,  in  majority  in  fourth 
Congress  but  overawed  by  influence 
of  Washington,  102  ;  maintains  new 
democratic  doctrines  of  French 
Revolution,  104 ;  carries  resolutions 
calling  for  instructions  to  Jay,  118  ; 
bitterness  against  Washington  re 
buked  by  Jefferson,  132 ;  recognizes 
need  of  provision  for  war  with 
France,  137  ;  compelled  to  maintain 
national  honor,  137  ;  purpose  to  re 
strict  executive  power,  149  ;  classi 
fied  by  Harper,  151 ;  controls  New 
York  and  Southern  States,  169; 
saved  by  Gallatin,  loses  its  chief  in 
Gallatin,  173,  174  ;  breach  in,  183  ; 
cardinal  points  of  policy,  186 ;  its 
principles  abandoned,  242  ;  opposes 
Bank  of  United  States,  256,  263; 
first  opposition  party,  290  ;  opposes 
politics  in  patronage,  290 ;  but  do 
not  carry  out  this  policy,  291 ; 
divided  by  alienation  of  Burr,  292  ; 
last  congressional  caucus  of,  370 ; 
extinguished  by  battle  of  New  Or 
leans,  371  ;  Gallatin  considers  de 
funct,  372. 

Revenue,  attributes  of,  224  ;  Edmund 
Burke  on,  226 ;  sources  of,  226 ;  for 
1801,  227  ;  permanent,  227  ;  Ran 
dolph's  report  on,  228  ;  Gallatin's 
report  for  1805,  231  ;  for  1807,  232  ; 
treasury  blockaded  from,  233 ;  in 

1808,  234;    in  1809,  235;    estimate 
for  1812,  240  ;   doubled,  242  ;   tariff 
of  1846,251. 

Revenue,  internal,  Hamilton's  scheme 
of,  243 ;  abandoned  by  Republicans, 
244 ;  Dallas  upon,  244 ;  restored  by 


418 


INDEX. 


Gallatin,  245;  enforced  by  Dallas, 
245. 

Richelieu,  Duke  of,  minister  of  Louis 
XVIII.,  interview  with  Gallatin, 
343  ;  indemnity  to  U.  S.,  344. 

Richmond,  society  in  1785,  24. 

Rochefoucauld,  d'Enville,  Duke  of, 
his  intervention  solicited  on  behalf 
of  Gallatin,  11. 

Romanzoff,  Count,  author  of  media 
tion  offer,  316  ;  his  purpose,  316 ; 
dispatch  to  Count  Lieven,  320  ;  gives 
letter  to  Dallas,  322. 

Rutledge,  John,  Jr.,  M.  C.,  South  Car 
olina,  137. 

Rush,  Richard,  minister  to  England, 
34G. 

Russell,  Jonathan,  peace  commis 
sioner  to  Ghent,  324. 

Russia  friendly  to  America,  333  ;  de 
clines  to  submit  to  search  of  vessels, 
349;  displeased  with  U.  S.  recog 
nition  of  independence  of  Spanish 
colonies,  349. 

SAVARY,  DE  VALCOULON,  of  Lyons,  has 
claims  against  Virginia,  19;  visits 
Philadelphia  and  Richmond  with 
Gallatin,  19,  20;  speculations  in 
land,  22 ;  establishes  residence  at 
Clare's,  25. 

Scientific  society  at  Washington,  397. 

Search,  right  of,  141,  334  ;  abandoned, 
347. 

Sedgwick,  Theodore,  M.  C.,  of  Massa 
chusetts,  Federal  leader,  102 ;  on 
committee  to  report  address,  108  ; 
on  Committee  on  Finance,  108 ; 
speaker  of  Hcuse,  163. 

Sedition  Law,  157,  168,  169. 

Senate,  U.  S.,  Gallatin  elected  to,  60; 
committee  on  his  qualification,  63 ; 
his  exclusion  from,  64 ;  his  course 
in,  66  ;  Committee  on  the  Treasury, 
66;  Gallatin  oifends  Hamilton's 
friends  in,  68. 

Seney,  Joshua,  of  Maryland,  marries 
Frances  Nicholson,  62. 

Serre,  Henri,  college  companion  of 
Gallatin,  4;  leaves  with  him  for 
America,  10  :  sails  from  L'Orient, 
11 ;  arrives  at  Cape  Ann,  12  ;  at 
Machias,  14  ;  teaches  at  Boston,  19  ; 
dissolves  partnership  with  Gallatin 
at  Philadelphia,  20  ;  dies  at  Jamai 
ca,  20. 

Bewail,  Samuel,  M.  C.,  Massachusetts, 
Federalist,  137. 

Sitgreaves,  Samuel,  M.  C.,  Pennsylva 
nia,  Federalist,  102,  108. 

Sismondi,  essay  on  commercial  wealth, 
287 ;  praises  Gallatin,  337. 


Slave  trade,  335,  349. 

Smilie,  John,  represents  Fayette  in 
Pennsylvania  ratification  conven 
tion,  37 ;  member  of  Pennsylvania 
Legislature,  of  Congress,  U.  S.  sena 
tor,  39  ;  friendship  for  Gallatin,  39  ; 
State  senator,  45  ;  at  distillers'  meet 
ing,  Union  town,  71. 

Smith,  John  Augustine,  379. 

Smith,  Robert,  secretary  of  state, 
supported  by  the  Invisibles,  305 ; 
leaves  the  cabinet,  308. 

Smith,  Samuel,  Gen.,  M.  C.,  167,  170. 

Smith,  William,  M.  C.,  South  Caro 
lina,  Federalist,  4,  102,  130. 

Smithsonian  Institution,  391,  397. 

Spain,  Pinckiiey's  treaty  with,  121  ; 
relations  with,  347. 

Specie  in  United  States,  1797,  145; 
a  foreign  product,  269. 

Spurzheim,  on  Gallatin's  head,  402. 

Stae'l,  Madame  de,  corresponds  with 
Gallatin,  331  ;  interview  of  Alex 
ander  and  Lafayette  at  her  house, 
326 ;  expresses  her  admiration  to 
Gallatin,  337. 

Stevens,  Byam  Kerby,  marries  Fran 
ces  Gallatin,  384. 

St.  Mark,  Fort,  captured  by  Jackson, 
348. 

Swiss  colonization,  plans  of,  374. 

TALLEYRAND,  French  minister,  154, 
158. 

Taney,  Roger  B.,  secretary  of  treas 
ury,  removes  deposits,  279. 

Taxes,  direct,  favored  by  Gallatin,  127. 

Texas,  annexation,  296,  364. 

Tracy,  Destutt  de,  Economic  Poli- 
tique  translated  by  Jefferson,  343. 

Tracy,  Uriah,  M.  C.,  Connecticut, 
Federal  leader,  102 ;  personal  abuse 
of  Gallatin,  123. 

Treasury,  Board  of,  of  the  Revolution, 
178  ;  new  board, 179,  180. 

Treasury  Department,  Hamilton's  ad 
ministration  of  attacked  by  Galla 
tin,  66  ;  resigned  by  Hamilton,  100 ; 
taken  by  Wolcott,  100 ;  control  over 
by  the  House  established,  109  ;  its 
condition  in  1796,  129  ;  its  disburse 
ment  of  appropriations  attacked, 
134 ;  its  management  controlled, 
161 ;  Senate  Bill  ordering  reports  of, 
opposed,  166 ;  established,  180  ;  ex 
amination  of,  183 ;  review  of,  251  ; 
Sherman's  report  on,  in  1879,  255 ; 
conducted  on  business  principles, 
289;  requires  business  capacity, 
291. 

Tripoli,  tribute  to,  294. 

Triumvirate,  traditions  of,  305 ;  Jeffer- 


INDEX. 


419 


son  withdraws  from,  308 ;  Gallatin's 
loyalty  to,  309 ;  dissolved,  310. 
Truxton,    Captain,   medal    voted    to, 
165. 

UNIONTOWN,  county  seat  of  Fayette, 
28 ;  meeting  of  distillers  at,  71. 

United  States,  frigate,  128. 

University,  national,  plan  of  D'Yver- 
nois,  301 ;  proposed  by  Gallatin  at 
New  York,  381 ;  result  of,  383 ;  Gal 
latin  withdraws,  383. 

VAN  BUREN,  MABTIN,  manages  Repub 
lican  caucus,  370. 

Vaudenet,  Susanne,  wife  of  Abraham 
Gallatin.  See  Gallatin,  Vaudenet. 

Voltaire,  his  retreat  at  Ferney,  7 ; 
friend  of  Gallatin  family,  7  ;  writes 
verses  for  Madame  Gallatin,  7  ; 
visited  by  young  Gallatin,  8. 

WASHINGTON,  seat  of  government,  167  ; 
society  in  1829,  373;  burning  of, 
331. 

Washington,  Pennsylvania,  anti-excise 
meeting  at,  52 ;  violent  resolutions 
of,  52  ;  meeting  of  moderate  men 
of,  72. 

Washington,  George,  General,  anec 
dote  of  and  Gailatin,  22,  23  ;  procla 
mation  to  whiskey  insurgents,  79; 
Randolph's  tribute  to,  79;  ap 
points  commissioners,  79 ;  makes 
requisitions  for  troops,  80 ;  calls  out 
troops,  90 ;  accompanies  army,  91 ; 
declines  to  countermand  march, 
91 ;  pardons  offenders,  99  ;  changes 
in  his  cabinet,  100;  his  influence, 
102, 104  ;  convenes  Congress  on  Jay 
treaty,  104 ;  accused  as  a  defaulter, 
107  ;  addresses  Congress,  107  ;  re 
fuses  to  send  Jay's  instructions  to 
the  House,  118;  his  birthday  the 
occasion  of  a  visit  from  the  House, 
130 ;  sends  tricolor  to  Congress, 
131 ;  issues  his  farewell  address, 
132  ;  lieutenant-general,  160 ;  death 
announced  to  Congress,  164  ;  Galla 
tin's  tribute  to,  397. 

Wayne,  Anthony,  General,  treaty  with 
Indians,  121. 

Ways  and  Means.  See  Finance  Com 
mittee. 

Ways  and  Means  Committee,  Harper 
chairman  of,  144. 

Ways  and  Means,  Randolph's  report, 
228.  See  Finance  Committee. 

Wellington,  Lord,  requested  to  go  to 
America,  332;  his  frank  opinion, 
334 ;  friendly  dispositions,  347. 


West  Indies  trade,  question  of  still  ir 
ritating,  337  ;  referred  to  the  Presi 
dent,  347,  359. 

Whiskey  Insurrection,  resistance  to 
writs,  70  ;  marshal's  house  burned, 
70 ;  in  Fayette  County,  70  ;  distil 
lers  meet  at  Uniontown,  71 ;  popu 
lar  meeting  at  Mingo  Creek  Meeting 
house,  71  ;  U.  S.  mails  stopped,  72  ; 
circular  calls  militia  to  resist  the 
law,  and  rendezvous  at  Parkinson's 
Ferry,  72  ;  meeting  of  moderate  men 
at  Washington,  72  ;  rendezvous  at 
Parkinson's  Ferry  countermanded, 
73 ;  violent  meeting  at  Braddock's 
Field,  73  ;  numbers,  estimate  of,  at, 
75;  violent  temper  of  the  people, 
76  ;  Gallatin's  opposition  to,  78  ; 
Hamilton  determines  to  suppress, 
79  ;  commissioners  appointed,  79 ; 
Washington  issues  proclamation,  79  ; 
convention  assembles  at  Parkinson's 
Ferry,  80;  violent  resolutions  op 
posed  by  Gallatin  and  withdrawn, 
82  ;  committee  of  sixty  appointed, 
83 ;  commissioners  arrive,  84 ;  con 
ference  agree  on  form  of  submis- 
cion,  85 ;  committee  of  sixty  accept 
terms,  86;  amnesty  granted,  86; 
meetings  for  submission  by  signa 
ture,  87  ;  moderation  in  Fayette 
County,  88;  threats  of  secession, 
89  ;  secession  flag,  89 ;  commission 
ers  return  to  Philadelphia  and  re 
port,  90  ;  Washington  calls  out 
troops,  90  ;  march  in  two  columns, 
91  ;  meeting  of  committee  of  sixty, 
91 ;  committee  sends  delegates  to  the 
President,  91  ;  final  popular  meet 
ing  at  Parkinson's  Ferry,  92  ;  west 
ern  counties  occupied  by  the  army, 
92,  93  ;  arrests  made,  93  ;  prisoners 
carried  to  Philadelphia,  94 ;  return 
of  the  army,  96 ;  cost  of,  96  ;  prose 
cutions,  99. 

Wolcott,  Oliver,  Jr.,  secretary  of 
treasury,  100 ;  his  situation  com 
miserated  by  Gallatin,  127  ;  com 
plains  of  influence  of  Gallatin,  Mad 
ison,  and  Jefferson,  131. 

Wolcott,  Oliver,  Jr.,  appointed  to 
Treasury,  183. 

Woodbury,  Levi,  Secretary  of  Treas 
ury,  reports  absolute  extinguish 
ment  of  U.  S.  debt,  281 ;  establishes 
sub-treasury,  282. 

X,  Y,  Z  dispatches,  154. 

YORKTOWN,  excise  offenders  prose 
cuted  at,  55. 


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